U.S. officials question political posters

  • 2004-05-20
  • By The Baltic Times
TALLINN ?The U.S. Embassy has said it would contact the Res Publica party over its election posters depicting U.S. President George Bush as favoring the ruling party.

Res Publica has launched its campaign for the June European Parliament polls by juxtaposing Prime Minister Juhan Party, its party leader, with the likes of George W. Bush, Gerhard Schroeder and Bertie Ahern.
In one of the posters Bush expresses amazement at the European Union's high taxes, to which Parts replies: "The socialists have really gone off the rocker... awful."
"We are contacting Res Publica about this," public affairs officer Thomas Hodges told the Baltic News Service. "The president of the United States and the government of the United States do not take sides in domestic political contests in sovereign democratic nations."
In another poster Parts declares that he is worried about the European constitution, but Irish Prime Minister Ahern consoles him, saying that as long as there is Irish music and dark beer in Europe, there will be no ?superstate.?
The press officer of the Irish Embassy was quoted as saying that they had seen the poster but did not intend to take any steps about it.