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In 2008, 200,000 Berliners came to hear Obama – then campaigning for the presidency, and barred by Merkel from speaking at the Brandenburg Gate – tell them: “This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom.”
Eight years later, he addressed an invited audience of 6,000 on his final trip to Europe as president, and told the chancellor – whom he described during his term as “my closest international partner” – that she was “on the right side of history”.
Obama and Merkel ended up forging a genuinely close bond during his presidency, finding common ground over issues such as Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, the European financial crisis and the refugee crisis.
While they differed notably on how to tackle the Islamic State, the former US president also developed a close working relationship with France’s ex-president François Hollande, particularly in the wake of the 2015 Paris terror attacks.
Obama told Hollande after the attacks that Americans “love France for your spirit and your culture and your joie de vivre … When tragedy struck, our hearts broke, too. In the face of the French people, we see ourselves. Nous sommes tous Français (We are all French).”
By contrast, Hollande said that Trump’s excesses “make you want to retch”. Merkel greeted Trump’s election by making future cooperation dependent on his accepting “democracy, freedom, respect for the law and human dignity irrespective of origin, skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views.”
The German chancellor’s meeting with the new US president at the White House in March was notable for its awkwardness, with Trump appearing to refuse to shake Merkel’s hand and the two failing to disguise deep differences in policy and style.
But Trump – who is expected in Germany for the first time as president in July, when he visits a G7 summit in Hamburg – and Obama both come to Europe with the Meanwhile, Obama has also spent a lot of his time since leaving office on an array of luxury island and seaside resorts, posting sunny and smiley images of himself having fun with the global jet-set – somewhat to the irritation of many of his supporters left despairing in Trump’s America.
At the 18th-century arch in Berlin that has also heard celebrated speeches from Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, Obama and Merkel will take questions about shaping democracy from a teacher, an actor, a social worker and a student.
In 2008, 200,000 Berliners came to hear Obama – then campaigning for the presidency, and barred by Merkel from speaking at the Brandenburg Gate – tell them: “This city, of all cities, knows the dream of freedom.”
Eight years later, he addressed an invited audience of 6,000 on his final trip to Europe as president, and told the chancellor – whom he described during his term as “my closest international partner” – that she was “on the right side of history”.
Obama and Merkel ended up forging a genuinely close bond during his presidency, finding common ground over issues such as Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, the European financial crisis and the refugee crisis.
While they differed notably on how to tackle the Islamic State, the former US president also developed a close working relationship with France’s ex-president François Hollande, particularly in the wake of the 2015 Paris terror attacks.
Obama told Hollande after the attacks that Americans “love France for your spirit and your culture and your joie de vivre … When tragedy struck, our hearts broke, too. In the face of the French people, we see ourselves. Nous sommes tous Français (We are all French).”
By contrast, Hollande said that Trump’s excesses “make you want to retch”. Merkel greeted Trump’s election by making future cooperation dependent on his accepting “democracy, freedom, respect for the law and human dignity irrespective of origin, skin color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views.”
The German chancellor’s meeting with the new US president at the White House in March was notable for its awkwardness, with Trump appearing to refuse to shake Merkel’s hand and the two failing to disguise deep differences in policy and style.
But Trump – who is expected in Germany for the first time as president in July, when he visits a G7 summit in Hamburg – and Obama both come to Europe with the continent in a more optimistic mood than it has been for many months.
Fallout from Europe’s migration crisis, bloody terror attacks in France, Belgium and Germany, persistent economic woes and the shock of Britain’s vote to leave the EU – not to mention Trump’s election – had left the bloc shaken and fearful.
The prospect of the same populist, nationalist forces that led to Brexit and Trump sweeping to victory in elections in Austria, the Netherlands and France prompted .
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/24/trump-international-trip-barack-obama-europe-return