Obama gets election thumbs up from Europeans

Obama or Romney? If Europeans could vote, Barack Obama would be re-elected with an overwhelming majority.

That’s the outcome of an opinion poll conducted in July by an American think tank across several European countries.

These are the statistics from that poll.

Obama
France: 89%
Germany 87%
UK 75%
Poland 35%

Romney
France: 2%
Germany 5%
UK 9%
Poland 16%

Euronews spoke to Ian Lesser, from the German Marshall Fund of the United States, in Brussels:

“American elections for many, many reasons very often are about personal qualities and character. It’s just the nature of our system. So I think it is very much about that. And I think for many Europeans still, it’s not just a legacy of the Obama bounce but also the legacy of the republicans being the party of George Bush”.

Romney remains a perfect stranger to most Europeans, with the exception of Poland where he gained some popularity during his campaign visit in July – 16 percent against 35 percent for Obama.

Ian Lesser, German Marshall Fund:
“The support for Central Eastern Europe’s continued integration into the West, of course this was not just the Bush legacy, it was also true for the Clinton administration. But clearly the Bush admnistration was very much in that mold. I think there was also a sense that on issues like Afghanistan and Iraq there was a bit more sympathy over time for American strategy in those places, in Poland”.

According to Lesser, what most surprises Europeans, is how tight a race this election has actually become.

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