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Former US President Barack Obama, in the first volume of his two-part memoir “The Promised Land”, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is like a strict “provincial governor” in Chicago as he described former French President Nicolas Sarkozy as characterized by “exaggerated rhetoric.” .
The banknotes reached sales of around 890,000 copies in the United States and Canada in the first 24 hours after they were released, a record for Penguin Randham House publishers, and “Promised Land” is expected to be the best-selling presidential memoir of history.
In his book, Obama recalls his travels around the world, as the forty-fourth president of the United States, and his meetings with world leaders.
Who of the leaders made a good impression and who didn’t?
David cameron
In his memoirs, Obama described David Cameron, a conservative who was educated at Eton College and served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 2010 to 2016, as “calm and confident”, and who had “the natural confidence of someone whose life I’ve never been so stressed before. “
Obama said he was comfortable with him as a person (“I loved him personally, even when we disagreed”), but he did not hide the fact that he did not agree with his economic policies.
“Cameron has adhered closely to the free market doctrine,” he wrote, “after promising voters that his program of deficit reduction and cuts in government services, as well as regulatory reform and trade expansion, will usher in a new era of British competitiveness “.
Obama added: “Instead, as expected, the British economy fell into a deeper recession.”
Vladimir Putin
Obama said the Russian president reminded him of the political barons he met early in his Chicago career.
He added that he was “like a county governor, but he has nuclear weapons and veto power in the United Nations Security Council.”
Obama said: “In fact, Putin reminded me of the kind of men who ran Chicago. They are tough personalities with insensitive cunning. They know what they know. They did not shy away from their narrow experiences. They considered favoritism, bribery, extortion, fraud and sporadic violence as legitimate tools of commerce. “
Nicolas Sarkozy
Obama said the former French president picked up “all the emotional excitement and exaggerated speeches,” he looked more like “a figure from the Toulouse-Lautrec paintings.”
He added: “The conversations with Sarkozy were fun and provocative, his hands were always moving and his chest protruded forward like a rooster cock, his personal interpreter at his side always enthusiastically reflected all his gestures and the rhythm of his voice, while the Conversation would go from flattery to exaggeration and then to its real goal, it wouldn’t walk away. ” Absolutely of its main mission, since it must occupy the center of the event and be credited with anything worthy of being credited.
Angela Merkel
The German Chancellor is known as “firm, honest, intellectually strict and innately kind.”
Obama says he was initially suspicious of him because of his eloquence and ability to speak.
“It is not my intention to offend,” he adds, “the German leader thought that dislike of a potential demagogue might be a healthy thing.”
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Obama found the Turkish leader “very friendly and generally responsive to my requests.”
She added, “However, every time I heard him speak, his tall stature leaned slightly forward, his voice trailed off, his tone rose in reaction to various complaints or alleged offenses. I had the strong impression that his commitment to the democracy and the rule of law could continue. ” On the condition that they retain their authority. “
Manmohan singh
The former Indian prime minister has been described as “very wise, sober and honorable” and “a key architect of India’s economic transformation”.
Obama noted that Singh was “a humble technocrat who earned the people’s trust not by appealing to their emotions, but by raising the standard of living and maintaining a good reputation because he was not corrupt.”
Vaclav Klaus
Obama had admired Vaclav Havel, the first president of the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution, but found his successor, Vaclav Klaus, more disturbing.
Obama said he feared that the eurosceptic president would represent the populist rise of the right in Europe, embodying “how the economic crisis (2008-2009) fueled nationalist impulses, anti-immigrant sentiment and suspicion of (European) integration.”
He added: “The tide of hope full of democracy, liberation and integration that swept the world after the end of the Cold War has begun to recede.”