Merkel and Obama meet in Washington for the former chancellor’s book event

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former US President Barack Obama, close political allies when they were both in power, gathered in Washington on Monday for an event launching the American memoirs.

Merkel established a close relationship with Obama during her eight years in the White House. Obama’s last foreign trip as president, in 2016, included a stop in Berlin to meet with a German colleague, who was preparing for then-President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.

During Monday’s event, Merkel and Obama discussed German unification, the 2008 global financial crisis, climate change and immigration in a discussion that drew sporadic applause and laughter from a crowd of about 3,000 people at The Anthem, an event venue in Washington.

Obama asked Merkel questions in English and she responded in German. He told the audience that her English is excellent, but that the scientist was a very meticulous person and wanted to speak in her native language.

Merkel then responded that Obama, a lawyer, was also very meticulous.

The two joked about Obama’s trip to Berlin as a presidential candidate in 2008, when she objected to his team’s request to speak in front of the Brandenburg Gate. She said she later worried he was angry. “I was fine,” he said.

The two leaders did not talk about Trump, who beat Democrat Kamala Harris in last month’s election. Merkel has said she hopes the United States eventually elects a woman president.

In his book, titled “Freedom: Memories 1954-2021” and written before the Nov. 5 election, he expressed hope that Kamala would win.

“Freedom was something I always sought in the early part of my life,” she said when Obama asked her about the book’s title. “Some people think of freedom as freedom from something, freedom from responsibility. My understanding of freedom is … that we have the power to do something,” he said.

Source: Terra

Rose

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