by
N. Peter Kramer
Understandable, it is the first time Barack Obama has condescended to come to Europe, more than 5 years after his first inauguration as President of the United States. His predecessors, the bad guy, in many European eyes, Bush; but also the still popular Bill Clinton, visited Europe many times during their 8 year reigns. But Obama had other priorities.
As usual the President started, in Amsterdam, with bravura: ’The EU and the US support the Ukrainian government’. Probably his zealots (remember for instance the undersecretary for foreign affairs who used very undiplomatic words to characterize the EU) forgot to tell him that in the Ukrainian government very questionable political parties are represented. The anti-Semitic party Swoboda for instance. The German quality daily Die Welt reports that a Swoboda leader said of the well-known actress (Black Swann) Mila Kunis that ‘she is not Ukrainian, she is a Jew’. The vice prime-minister Oleksandr Sitsj is one of the leaders of Swoboda, he is anti-abortion and wants women to behave in an ‘un-provocative way’. And let’s not forget Dimitri Jarosj (national security) also ultra-right and an adept of the Ukrainian fascist Stepan Bandera. But who cares? Not EU and G7 leaders.
Who believes that the suggestions for the EU-US summit agenda proposed by Amnesty International will be at the table? When will Obama finally meet his commitment to close Guantanamo detention centre, which still holds, after more than 12 years, 154 prisoners without any legal civil rights; when does the President end the use of the death penalty in his country (the US is in the top of the list of countries that impose the death penalty).
Legal civil rights, opposition to the death penalty, common European values! But no subject during Obama’s visit!
By: N. Peter Kramer
