Bush's European Road Show

• Share

Vive la France!" declared George W. Bush in an interview with French television as the President and his entourage rolled into Europe last week. Like most of those attending the European summits with Bush — in Krakow, St. Petersburg, and at the G-8 in Evian — the Americans were playing down differences and talking up the need for greater transatlantic cooperation. Washington's goal: to allay European fears that victory in Iraq will tempt the U.S. to run roughshod over world opinion. "It isn't the power of the U.S. that needs to be checked," cooed Bush's national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, "It's the power of the U.S. that needs to work cooperatively with others who share the same values to achieve common goals."

Not all Europeans were buying that: the Continent remains deeply divided on how to deal with the U.S. While British Prime Minister Tony Blair resolutely backs Bush's call for closer relations with Washington, "old" Europeans, led by French President Jacques Chirac, want Europe to be an alternative — and often opposing — power center. And a new TIME/CNN poll conducted by TNS in Britain, Germany and France suggests Chirac's finger is closer to Europe's pulse — 37% of those polled said he best represents the views of most Europeans on U.S.-E.U. relations. Only 18% said Blair fit that description. Blair can comfort himself with the knowledge that Britons are more optimistic about the future than their neighbors: 36% say they will be better off financially in a year's time, against 19% in France and just 9% in Germany.

All in all, Europeans want the G-8 leaders to focus on the economy and fighting the war on terror, with other concerns such as protecting the environment and installing a new Iraqi government trailing far behind.

European suspicions about the U.S. are shared by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hosting E.U. leaders and Bush in St. Petersburg last weekend, Putin made nice with the Americans while urging the Europeans to pursue the dream of a multipolar world in an entente cordiale with Moscow. Europeans weren't buying that either. Putin was slapped down by the E.U. leaders, who demanded that he clean up Russia's human-rights record, especially in Chechnya, and ratify the Kyoto protocol on climate change. In other words, as uncertain as they are about the U.S., European leaders may be even more distrustful of Russia.