Will Europe continue to embrace Obama?

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — They gave him their hearts when he visited last summer. Now, the question hanging over Europe is how much more they’ll give Barack Obama as he returns for the first time as president of the United States.

Obama leaves Tuesday on a whirlwind eight-day tour. He remains enormously popular in Europe, and the throngs that greeted him last year as a candidate are likely to grow. With first lady Michelle Obama along, Obamas’ debut on the world stage as president already is inspiring anticipation of the kind of rock-star reception that greeted John and Jackie Kennedy on their first trip to Europe in 1961.

Yet Obama also heads into his first overseas trip with grand goals — looking to forge a coordinated global response to the economic crisis, hoping Europe will send more of its sons and daughters to help in an escalating war in Afghanistan, and seeking to restore international cooperation that he thinks suffered in the Bush years.

That will be a tough sell. Publicly, European and world leaders will embrace Obama. But privately, they likely will say no to some of his requests, most notably sending combat troops to Afghanistan, or simply avoid the subject.

“He remains a superstar in European public opinion,” said Reginald Dale, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a centrist research organization. Dale noted that Europeans have even more trust in Obama than Americans do, according to a recent poll by the Financial Times newspaper.

“European leaders want to be seen next to Obama, preferably with ... his arms around their shoulders and a big smile because he’s so popular in Europe. And nobody’s going to try and raise awkward subjects with him.”

Perhaps, but those subjects will be unavoidable as Obama heads first to the United Kingdom, then on to France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Turkey.

His first stop will be at the G20, a group of 19 major economic powers, plus the European Union, meeting in London.

Obama already has been pushing them for more government spending to stimulate the global economy, as he’s doing at home. Many European countries, however, instead are emphasizing tougher regulation of the financial system.

“Even the European Union itself is balking,” said Nile Gardiner, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization. “I think we are going to see a significant transatlantic divide emerging at the G20 between the U.S. position of massive stimulus spending and European opposition to that.”

Obama next will attend a meeting of NATO in Strasbourg, France, and Baden-Baden, Germany.

Officially, the meeting will mark the 60th anniversary of the alliance. Unofficially, the war in Afghanistan will dominate the meeting as the U.S. asks for help.

In Prague, Czech Republic, Obama will attend a meeting of the EU.

One likely topic will be the U.S. commitment to deploy a missile defense system in the Czech Republic, as the Bush administration proposed.

Obama will visit Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey, before turning homeward.