Europe favours Obama but Britons like Clinton

Europe favours Obama but Britons like Clinton
By John Thornhill in Paris
Financial Times UK
Published: February 17 2008

The French, Italians, Spanish and Germans would "vote" for Barack Obama in the US presidential elections - although the British would prefer Hillary Clinton.

An FT/Harris poll of more than 5,000 Europeans found that the two Democratic candidates were by far the most popular, with Mr Obama winning between 35 per cent of the "vote" in Spain and 45 per cent in Italy.

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On the Republican side, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani were the two most popular candidates (Mr Giuliani, who was particularly strong in Italy, has ­subsequently pulled out of the race).

The online poll was conducted between January 30 and February 8.

In a separate FT/Harris poll of 1,020 adults in the US, Mr Obama narrowly beat Mrs Clinton by a margin of 22 per cent to 21 per cent. Mr McCain was in third place with 14 per cent.

US election surveys are normally restricted to likely or, at least, registered voters, whereas the Harris survey sampled all adults and reflects a snapshot of how the US feels on this issue.

This year's US presidential election has aroused huge interest in Europe, which seems keen to end eight years of often testy relations with the administration of President George W. Bush.

Louis Giscard d'Estaing, a French parliamentary deputy and president of the Franco-American friendship group, said the election of any of the three leading ­contenders would strengthen transatlantic ties.