Obama's election may change strategic alliances between the US and the EU, predicts Mey Dudin A crowd of nearly 200,000 gathered around the Victory Column when Barack Obama spoke to "the people of Berlin" in July about change. Like me, many young people took the opportunity to see the United States Democratic presidential hopeful during his visit. Two-hundred metres from the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of German reunification, the US senator emphasised: "This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom. In the darkest hours, the people of Berlin kept the flame of hope burning. The people of Berlin refused to give up." Obama recalled the 1948 Berlin Airlift which supplied the city with food after the Soviet Union blocked access. "Berlin is where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other," he said. I was deeply moved, but when I asked my friend what she thought of the speech, this was her reply: "Rhetorically it was brilliant", she said. "Otherwise, it didn't affect me. He only spoke to West Germans." She was right. Obama just referred to one part of Germany and disregarded the former citizens of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). So, after Obama's election, what are the differing views in European countries about how it will affect their ties with the US? The US and the UK have always been close. But Germany and France certainly count on closer US-cooperation in the future. Their refusal to support the war in Iraq adversely affected relationships during the past few years but now politicians are reminding us of Obama's words in Berlin: "America has no better partner than Europe." German author and Nobel Prize winner Gènter Grass stresses the need for a change in US foreign policy: "The Bush years harmed the country and the world," he told a German newspaper. The future role of eastern EU countries like Poland and the Czech Republic is more uncertain. Both joined the "coalition of the willing" to support President Bush's invasion of Iraq, with Poland even sending troops. Currently US missile defence installations are planned there and, in return, the Polish and Czech governments expect protection against Russian ambitions. If dialogue with France and Germany opens up, Poland and the Czech Republic may become less important to the US. Change will certainly come to Europe, but it might not be welcome to everyone.
