In France, where opinion polls reported 78% of people wanted Obama to win, including a majority on the Right and Far Right, the president's second term was applauded across the political spectrum, reports The Guardian.
François Hollande, the Socialist president, sent his "warmest congratulations" saying this was "an important moment for the US, but also for the world."
He lauded the voters' "clear choice" for "an America of openness and solidarity, fully engaged on the international scene and conscious of the challenges facing our planet: peace, economy and the environment." He stressed the need to work together to "bring back growth, fight unemployment and find solutions for the crises threatening us, notably in the Middle East".
He avoided Nicolas Sarkozy's slip in 2008 of spelling Obama's first name wrong in the French congratulation letter.
The rightwinger Nadine Morano, a former minister under Sarkozy, declared that Obama had been more polite in victory than Hollande. "Obama is extending a hand to Romney in the name of the country's interest, not like Hollande," she tweeted of the Socialist president, who she said had "discourteously turned his back" on Sarkozy while walking up the Elysée steps on taking office.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.
See Mediapart's live coverage of the elections and ensuing reactions to Obama's victory here.