Germany: What if Romney wins?

Der Spiegel
PJ:  Germans have had a horrible history with far right politics and are loath to return to such ideals.  While their government is in nature conservative, on the whole they support progressive policies like one of the best public health care programs in Europe.  And while the support for fiscal conservative policies is intact, the population keeps a wary eye on any other governmental movement drifting too far to the right.  Today's US GOP has not drifted but has surged so far right that Germans suspect that a republican candidate such as "severely conservative" Mitt Romney will kowtow to the far-right leaders in his party making him suspect and perhaps even dangerous. 

The American Enigma Berlin Unsure about a Possible President Romney

By Severin Weiland

Germans like US President Barack Obama, but what if his challenger Mitt Romney wins next week's election instead? The Republican politician is hard to read when it comes to foreign policy matters, and politicians in Berlin are asking what it would mean for German-American relations.  

Germans have long since made up their minds about Mitt Romney. Only 5 percent would give him their vote if they had one, they say.

The result of the most recent poll by Forsa is far from surprising. When America votes, the German heart traditionally beats for the Democratic candidate. To many, the Republicans are suspect: cocky, Christian-conservative, narrow-minded and often hawkish -- at least according to the widespread cliché. Some 92 percent of Germans, the poll found, would vote to return incumbent Barack Obama to the White House. They aren't allowed to cast a ballot, of course, and are damned to be observers, nervously standing on the sidelines. Obama and Romney are neck-and-neck in the polls, with just days to go before Election Day next Tuesday. And politicians in Berlin have long since begun considering the possibility that Romney may take over the reins of state.

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/german-american-relations-what-would-a-romney-victory-mean-for-berlin-a-864804.html