Power shift in US - what does it mean for Europe?

EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso urged the new Congress to work with the EU towards a relaunch of the Doha Trade Round. Trade Commissioner Mandelson also underlined through his spokesperson that he will use his contacts with US Congress leaders to get the stalled trade talks back on track.

But in the Financial Times,  Jacob Weisberg is less hopeful. "Free trade is the real election casualty," writes the Slate.com editor. Weisberg warns against the "new economic nationalists" in the Democrat party, who are "against free trade, globalisation and any sort of moderate immigration policy".

In the same newspaper, the lead editorial is more upbeat and calls the elections " a very good day for American democracy". The article continues: "Americans have at last started to hold to account the Republican leadership [...] for their incompetence and disdain for the law". But the editor also warns that the newly elected Democrats should refrain from "pandering to the more populist elements of their constituency" and should show "vision and statesmanship that will restore the country's confidence and reputation".

In the Guardian,  Timothy Garton Ash sees 7 November as "the beginning of an end - and the end of a beginning". It is the end for the "unilateral, polarising style in foreign policy" of the Bush government and the beginning of a "new struggle for which we do not yet have a generally accepted name". From now on, says Garton Ash, "American foreign policy will have to be more bipartisan at home and more multilateral abroad".

In Liberation's  blog "A l'heure americaine",  Laurent Mauriac is less convinced that the Democrat win has opened the door to the 2008 Presidency. He points to the weaknesses of the Democrat Party (lack of a real programme, internal divisions) and underlines the strengths of George W. Bush. We might see a different Bush, Mauriac says, refering to the President's previous experience as Texas governor where he managed to work in a bipartisan way. "Le Bush diviseur et intransigeant devrait laisser la place à un Bush plus rassembleur, plus ouvert, par nécessité" and this could well lead to a successful end of his mandate, says Mauriac.

Christian Wernick of Germany's Süddeutsche Zeitung  calls the election results a "victory for democracy". Bush will have to follow the will of the American voter to withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible. It is the "factual end of the Bush doctrine", writes Wernicke.

The progressive Frankfurter Rundschau  is less convinced that there will be a new Iraq strategy. "There are no alternatives", says the German newspaper. Refering to the situation in Afganistan, the FR expects that Europeans will have to take more responsibility. 

On the political front, several EU leaders see reason for hope. The Party of European Socialists (PES) issued a press release hoping for "a new era of greater co-operation and understanding between the US and EU". PES Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said: "I am excited at the prospect of a new debate - and a new direction - on Iraq and the Middle East, on the wider war against terror, on other global challenges such as poverty, AIDS, climate change and world trade".