Barack Obama’s Election Day victory has provoked some curious comments from some corners of Mother Europe:
Over the past week, a number of European lawmakers and journalists have made foot-in-mouth comments regarding America’s black president-elect, suggesting that some otherwise respected public figures in Europe are far from enlightened on racial matters.
The day after Obama’s victory, a leading Austrian television journalist said on camera that he “wouldn’t want the Western world to be directed by a black man.” A Polish lawmaker stood up in Parliament and called the election result “the end of the white man’s civilization.”
One of the milder gaffes came from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. On Thursday, during a visit to Moscow, he praised Obama for being “young, handsome and even suntanned.”
Berlusconi’s remark caused a stir in Italy, as critics chided him for sounding like a fool. But the prime minister was unrepentant. “What’s the problem? It was a compliment,” he told journalists the next day. Anyone who did not get the joke, he added, was an “imbecile.”
(…)
After saying that he “wouldn’t want the Western world to be directed by a black man,” he added: “If you say that is a racist comment, you’re right. Without a doubt.”
Emmerich, 80, was once based in Washington and has also reported for German television and newspapers over a long career. Given a chance to retract his remarks, he declined. In a later interview with the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, he said that “blacks are not as politically civilized.” He also called Obama dangerous and implicitly compared him to Hitler, citing his “rhetorical brilliance” and his ability to “appeal charismatically to people.”
Wow, and here I thought Europe was so much more enlightened than us uncivilized Americans — you know, the Americans who just elected a black guy President.
