Sarkozy: Obama not up to standard
French president Nicolas Sarkozy criticises Barack Obama and other world leaders over lunch
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Friday, 17, Apr 2009 02:28
French President Nicolas Sarkozy laid into several world leaders, including US president Barack Obama, during a cross-party lunch yesterday.
Mr Sarkozy voiced concerns that Obama was "not up to standard" in terms of his decision-making or his efficiency. Mr Sarkozy did praise Obama as being "very intelligent and very charismatic" but said there were certain areas in which Obama "did not have a position." He singled out US reluctance to implement taxes on carbon emissions as an example.
He also suggested Spanish premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was "not very intelligent", European Commission president José Manuel Barroso was "totally absent" at the G20 summit and German chancellor Angela Merkel "had no choice but to come round to my position" because of the state of the German banks.
The remarks were made during an informal lunch at the president's Elysée Palace to 24 politicians invited to discuss the current economic crisis. The meeting was meant to be private but unsurprisingly given the nature of his comments in front of opposition politicians, the exchanges were leaked to the French newspaper Libération.
They quoted one source as saying Sarkozy was "strangely close to his own caricature". The president has a reputation for tactlessness.
The president's office denied he had made the comment about Mr Zapatero, but not the others.