Politics
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Election committee at the mock US Elections in Ljubljana. (Photo: BOBO)
US Elections
A New America
21.11.2008
The US election may have happened half a world away, but for many Slovenians, Barack Obama’s victory hit close to home.
It looked like any other polling place. The walls were adorned with American flags, poll workers handed out official-looking ballots, and voters cast votes for their chosen candidate in realistic voting booths. This election, however, took place in Ljubljana and most of the voters weren’t US citizens: The majority were high-profile Slovenians – actors, directors, writers -- determined to let their voice be heard. It was all a high-profile mock election, an artistic performance of sorts – and a culmination of Slovenia’s intense public interest in the election.
Hours before American voters headed to the polls, these mock voters gave Obama an early landslide victory: He received 96 votes, compared to just ten for McCain. The final results on the other side of the Atlantic were somewhat closer, but as Slovenia slept early on November 5, the candidate who had captured Europe’s imagination and good will emerged as the President-elect by a wide margin.
The Audacity of Change
Like elsewhere in Europe, people in Slovenia have high hopes for the future President. Film director Dušan Jovanović, who organized the mock election, told the daily Delo that the new administration will play a crucial role in everything from global warming to international relations: “I think the American elections are a type of New Year’s Eve, which ushers in expectations of a through cleanup in the White House and the emergence of a new administration that will set new coordinates on the world map. The person running the White House affects the entire world, including Slovenia.” Jovanović added that the mock election proved that the people of Slovenia were aware of epochal nature of the 2008 US election.
The “election” also provided chance for the promotion of Obama’s hugely successful political memoir. The Slovenian publisher of Obama’s The Audacity of Hope, a book that has been a major bestseller both in the US and Europe, took advantage of the intense media interest of the election and launched the Slovenian translation just a day before Election Day.
The American Embassy in Ljubljana was not outdone and held a mock election of its own. While US citizens had cast their real ballots by mail, the mock event enabled high-profile Slovenians, including a number of politicians, to cast their symbolic votes in the glare of TV cameras -- and enjoy a fully catered party. Several Slovenian politicians also expressed their support for Obama, as did Slovenia-based American writer Erica Johnson Debeljak, who stressed the symbolic importance of an African-American winning the presidency. Ambassador Yousif Ghafari skillfully dodged questions about his favored candidate, but members of the media were not quite as impartial: RTV Slovenija noted that some of them wore Obama pins.
A Trans-Atlantic View
The media’s enthusiasm for Obama was evident in the newspaper editorials and commentaries published after the election. Boris Čibej of Delo, Slovenia’s leading broadsheet, described the election of the first African-American President as a major step for mankind and called the US “a beacon for the rest of the world.” Many people in Europe wondered whether the US was to racist to elect a black president, wrote Čibej, “but nobody has asked whether a member of a minority could be elected president in Europe.” Other Slovenian newspapers also expressed their support for Obama, but also cautioned that the new President will face a number of serious challenges. The Maribor-based daily Večer pointed out that while Bush ruled during economic growth, Obama takes over in a period of the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, a record budget deficit and two wars “that cannot be won”.
Writing in Delo, Samuel Žbogar, the director of the Institute for Strategic Studies in Ljubljana, stressed that it would be a mistake to see Obama as someone who can save the US and the world from the problems they both face. However, Žbogar added that Obama speaks a language that Europe and the world understand and want to hear: “the importance of diplomacy, dialog, cooperation, partnership, interdependence, solidarity, multilateralism, human rights, and international law.” Žbogar pointed out that Slovenia could play an important role in the new, multilateral world, as a neutral broker that lacks its own special interests and can therefore seek out compromises.
In his defeat, McCain also received some attention in Slovenia. His graceful concession speech was widely praised, both by politicians and ordinary people, as an example that Slovenian politicians should emulate. The newspaper Finance wrote that the Slovenian political landscape is still very different from its American counterpart. The daily praised the two US candidates for presenting clear policy proposals before the election, in sharp contrast to Slovenia’s leading parties: “The question in Slovenia is not whether the politicians will act contrary to their promises, but what they are promising at all.”
Obama’s victory has been greeted with widespread enthusiasm throughout Europe, where nearly all opinion polls had given him a wide lead over McCain. In fact, he has become an international symbol of change. When German Greens elected Turkish-German Cem Özdemir as the head of their party – a first for Germany – he was quickly pronounced Germany’s Obama. His slogan? “Yes we Cem.”
Even when the initial enthusiasm settles down, Obama’s presidency is expected to usher in a new era of international relations. After eight years of Bush, many Europeans consider that fact alone worth celebrating.