Vienne s’est mise en frais pour POTUS

Puisque GW est à Vienne, il faut bien en dire un mot. Bien sûr, rien de politique dans ces commentaires sur cette rencontre au sommet USA-UE où l’on se parlera de tout et où l’on ne se dira rien.

Seul réel centre d’intérêt : l’absurdité des mesures de sécurité. Alors, cet extrait de l’article de Charles Bremmer, dans le Times du jour, fera l’affaire :

« I have covered summits for years, going back as far as the last US presidential visit to Vienna — by Jimmy Carter to sign the SALT II nuclear arms pact with the Soviet Union in 1979. Since those years, the security operation around summits, wherever they are, has expanded geometrically. By far the biggest attend the movements of POTUS, as the White House calls the President of the United States. Since September 2001, these have reached absurd proportions. The centre of Vienna has been locked down since the Bush's arrival on Air Force One last night. Streets are closed to traffic and parks and squares are locked shut. Bomb disposal squads are checking suitcases. The unusual quiet makes it feel like a prettier version of Soviet Moscow on the morning of the old November parades.

» Military helicopters are hovering over the Hofburg, the old Imperial Palace, where Bush meets the current commanders of Europe: Wolfgang Schussel, Austrian Chancellor and curent President of the Union Council, and Jose-Manuel Barroso, President of the EU Commission.

» We are working alongside in the usual vast press centre inside a cordon of about 2,000 police. To enter means penetrating three cordons, with the right credentials. At two of them, they searched all my bags and asked me to show that my computer and mobile phone were real. Dogs then sniffed them, along with the laundry in my overnight bag. Across the lawns in the beautiful Palace square, a few authorised demonstrators are milling around.

» This is not criticism of Austrian hospitality, just a lament to excessive precautions that the Americans impose on their hosts. In the Cold War days, neutral Austria was sympathetic to the United States, whose post-war diplomacy had helped save them from the Soviet occupation that smothered their neighbours. In 2006, Austrian opinion of the United States has reached a low ebb. According to the Pew Center survey of European attitudes this week, two thirds of Austrians have a negative view of the Americans. This was close to the level of the most anti-American nation, Spain, with only 23 percent approval... »

Ce n'est pas nous qui le disons, c'est lui: Vienne pour l'arrivée de GW, c'était Moscou pour l'arrivée de Brejnev pour la parade de chaque novembre. C'est la pérennité des choses qui se ressemblent.

Mis en ligne le 21 juin 2006 à 15H37