Obamania hits Berlin

Deborah Cole

Berlin - US presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Thursday kicked off a European tour in Berlin, which was ready to give him a rapturous welcome amid a yearning on the continent for change in Washington.

Obama, who arrived from Israel, was to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier before making a foreign policy speech in front of an expected cheering crowd of tens of thousands.

"He is awaited like a magician who can clear away the clouds of a troubled world," the influential German newsmagazine Der Spiegel said in a cover story. "Obama is the hope of a Western world with a lot of worries."

Germans have followed the US election campaign intensely. The vast majority - 76%, according to one recent poll - would vote for Obama if they could versus just 10% for his Republican rival John McCain.

The Illinois senator, 46, has frequently drawn comparisons with former US president John F Kennedy, who entered the history books with his "Ich bin ein Berliner" vow to the then-divided city in June 1963.

German newspaper columnists spoke of an "Obamania" gripping the city and wondered whether the senator would match those rhetorical heights in his keenly awaited evening address.

Newspaper seller Klaus Schlicht, 49, who had decorated his kiosk with an American flag for the occasion, said he saw Obama "as a new Kennedy - young and dynamic".

"There will be better relations between the US and Europe" if Obama wins in November, he told AFP.

'There have been warnings...'

Police have cordoned off a broad section of the city centre around the speech venue, where European bands and DJs are to warm up the crowd before Obama takes the stage at around 19:30.

The current leg of Obama's trip begins in the heart of what the current US administration dismissively called "Old Europe" for its fervent opposition to the Iraq war.

Western Europeans have seized upon the Illinois senator's own early rejection of the Iraq invasion in the hope he can restore a relationship that conservative leaders such as Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have only just managed to mend.

While both leaders have a warm rapport with President George W Bush, polls show the European public has grown increasingly disillusioned with the United States during the Republican's years in power.

They strongly support Obama's foreign policy goals including closing the Guantanamo Bay lock-up for terror suspects, fighting nuclear proliferation and facing up to climate change with an EU-style emissions cap-and-trade plan.

Obama's calls for talking to Iran over its nuclear programme and renewing US engagement in the Middle East peace process have also received a warm welcome here.

The business daily Handelsblatt said Europeans must be aware, however, that in exchange for a stronger transatlantic partnership he would expect more of the continent including a stronger military commitment in Afghanistan, where Obama started his international tour on Saturday.

"There have been warnings (for example over capital punishment) that Obama should not be mistaken for a secret European in the US elections," it wrote.

Source of so much fascination

"The next disappointment will come over Afghanistan, where he wants to boost troop numbers. Obama's hard-as-nails message is: dear Europeans, dear Germans, I'll keep you to your word if I'm elected. More international co-ordination means more European engagement in hotspots."

Merkel said on Wednesday she was looking forward to meeting the source of so much fascination on both sides of the Atlantic. But she stressed that Germany had no plans to commit more troops to fight the Taliban.

The chancellor also brushed aside a flap over her objection to Obama's initial wish to speak at the Brandenburg Gate, the iconic symbol of German unity.

Asked about the remarks, Merkel said she took the "perhaps a bit old-fashioned" view that the landmark should be reserved for sitting presidents, recalling historic appearances by Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

The presumptive candidate will instead speak in the Tiergarten park at the Victory Column, a 19th century monument to defeats of France, Austria and Denmark in successive wars and more recently, a venue for the wildly popular Love Parade techno parties.

Obama's staff has defended him against claims he is defying convention by taking electioneering abroad, saying the senator wanted to speak to the whole of Europe so he needed a big venue.

The senator will continue on to Paris to meet Sarkozy on Friday, followed by a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London on Saturday.

- AFP