President Johannes Rau of Germany was in distinguished, if embarrassed, company yesterday when he joined Mr Gore and President Chirac of France in congratulating Mr George W. Bush on his election "victory".
"We know you to be a good friend of our country and look forward to continuing the close friendship between our peoples during your term," Mr Rau said in his statement, which was issued after US television networks declared the Governor of Texas the new president of the US. Mr Rau withdrew his message after the announcement that there would be to be a recount in Florida, his office in Berlin said yesterday.
The German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, was slightly more cautious and put his congratulations on ice, as did Dr Angela Merkel, leader of the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU).
Germany's federal government had let it be known in the last days of the campaign that it would have no problem working with either candidate. That may be due to the lack of serious foreign policy differences between the two candidates, but is also a sign of how Germany has matured as a nation in the last five years, according to observers.
"There was a time when Germany used to shiver at presidential election time because the defence of Germany depended so much on the US. But it doesn't really matter any more," says Ms Catherine McArdle Kelleher, a former special representative in the US Department of Defence and now director of the Aspen Institute, an independent think-tank in Berlin.
German industry has been wary of expressing outright support for either candidate, but the almost-president Bush emerged yesterday as the slight favourite.
A conservative president and conservative-controlled Congress would give more stability and would be more desirable to leading industry representatives questioned by the Handlesblatt business newspaper.
About 300,000 Americans live in Germany, with over 10,000 in Berlin. At the election party hosted by the American embassy in the capital on Tuesday evening, Mr Gore emerged as the clear winner in a mini-election that saw Mr Nader going from statistical oblivion to runner-up with 14 per cent of the vote.
Their own election settled, the Berlin-based Americans abroad - or "Amis" - paid no heed to the electoral drama unfolding in Florida and partied late into the night fuelled by pizza, chicken nuggets and buckets of barbecue sauce.
