U.S. election mesmerizes Europe

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PARIS -- Europeans have become obsessed with the American presidential elections to a degree unequaled in previous campaigns, speculating on the future of the United States as if it were their own.

"There's a huge interest in it this year. You'd think it was a British election," said Martin Fletcher, foreign editor of the Times of London, a newspaper that has been reporting extensively on the U.S. election.

"I cannot remember an issue that has ever aroused such intense interest. Everyone in Britain has an opinion about it. It's a talking point wherever you go."

In the press, on the streets and at dinner tables on both sides of the English Channel, one issue dominates: Who will be the next leader of the United States? And what will it mean for Europe?

The chatter is in different languages, but in Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, one hears the same thing over and over: President Bush must go.

"He has the ability to provoke an incredible animosity, and this gives us even more incentive to be interested in the U.S. election, because Bush is probably the least liked of all U.S. presidents since World War II," said Alain Frachon, a senior editor at Le Monde, one of several French newspapers running extensive coverage of the American presidential campaign.

"People here, right or wrong, have the impression that the Bush administration triggered a wave of Francophobia in the U.S.," he said.

In Poland, one of a handful of Eastern European countries that sent troops to Iraq, people likewise are following the race with unprecedented attention, albeit with a different twist.

A Bush defeat would have negative consequences for Poland, as it takes its place as the most prominent of 10 new members of the 25-nation European Union.

"If Kerry wins, the anti-war countries in the European Union will say Bush lost because of Iraq, which means everyone who supported Bush in Iraq is also a loser," said Bartosz Weglarczyk, foreign editor at Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's largest newspaper.