It’s been brewing for some time, but the apparent antipathy between Presidents Sarkozy and Obama – particularly expressed by the French leader, is becoming increasingly difficult to deny.
According to this news item by the Paris correspondent of Switzerland’s Le Temps, Sylvain Besson, Sarkozy has begun openly using President Obama as an example of how not to do things.
For Le Temps, Sylvain Besson writes in part:
In ever more pronounced terms, whenever we speak to him about his failures, Nicolas Sarkozy refers us to those of Barack Obama. Asked last Monday about his method of pursuing reforms in every direction, he responded with a scathing remark, “I see that Mr. Obama, for whom I have esteem and even friendship, has staked everything on health care reform. I don’t see how that made things any easier.”
For the French president, this isn’t his first such blow. In early November he had already put this argument to several journalists – it’s much better to do many reforms than one – with a few leading comments: “Obama has only been in power for a year and has lost three mid-term elections. Me, I’ve won two legislative and the European elections. What would you have said if I lost?” Far from being anecdotal, Nicolas Sarkozy’s bad humor toward his American counterpart has almost become structural. “Whenever he has an opportunity to criticize Obama, he does, whether it’s to his cabinet or before visitors,” said a connoisseur of French diplomacy under cover of anonymity.
Why such spite? Specialists say the root of the problem was Barack Obama’s whirlwind visit to France in June 2009. During his stay in Paris, he had avoided any encounter with Nicolas Sarkozy, while Sarkozy burned to appear by his side. “He made it clear that he wanted no contact with him,” recalls the observer quoted above. “That had never occurred in the history of the Fifth Republic [since 1958].”
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