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Sarkozy to Obama: we’ll win, you and me

French President Nicolas Sarkozy took a break from his re-election campaign Thursday to take a friendly videophone call from US President Barack Obama – in the presence of reporters.

Published: 12 April 2012 17:58 CEST

Sarkozy to Obama: we'll win, you and me

William Lawrence

Before beginning talks on fuel prices and the crises in Iran, Syria and Afghanistan, Obama complimented Sarkozy on his campaign ahead of the French election, which will take place over two rounds on April 22 and May 6.

Sarkozy thanked him for the call and for the friendship he said the US leader has shown France, and slipped into English to express support for Obama’s own re-election bid in November, saying: “We will win, you and me.”

The head-to-head continued after the reporters left the room.

The French leader has stressed his credentials as a global statesman during the campaign, in which he faces a strong challenge from a popular but internationally inexperienced Socialist candidate, Francois Hollande.

Fellow right-wingers German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron have wished him well, and Obama, from the US centre-left Democratic Party, shared a rare joint television interview in November.

Sarkozy has also publicly said that he hopes Obama will be re-elected.

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Barack Obama to return to Denmark in September

Former US President Barack Obama in Kolding last year. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix

Obama’s September 28th stop in North Jutland would have fallen in the same month as the now-postponed official state visit of his successor, Donald Trump, on September 2nd and 3rd.

The 44th president of the United States last came to Denmark in 2018, when he gave a talk for business leaders in Kolding, and also visited while in office.

READ ALSO: Obama uses Denmark speech to warn against 'racial', 'nationalistic' politics

Bill Clinton was the first sitting president to visit Denmark when he visited in 1997. George W. Bush came to the Scandinavian country eight years later in 2005. Obama visited Denmark in 2009 as part of the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen.

Obama’s latest trip to the country was announced by venue Musikkens Hus in northern city Aalborg, which will play host to the event “A Conversation with President Barack Obama”.

Musikkens Hus CEO Lasse Rich Henningsen, who will act as moderator at the event at which guests will be invited to ask questions, said he was looking forward to the occasion.

“President Obama is one of the people I look up to most in the in the world, so I’m hugely looking forward to meeting him,” Henningsen told Ritzau.

The invitation-only Aalborg event is primarily for business leaders, who will form the majority of the audience along with around two hundred students from Aalborg University.

Tickets will cost invited business leaders between 3,500 and 8,500 kroner, while students will attend for free, Henningsen said.

The Musikkens Hus foundation expects the event to break even, while Obama’s fee is undisclosed, Henningsen said.

The visit will be the first to Aalborg by a former US president.

“I’m in not a second of doubt that this will be a new climax for Aalborg and all of North Jutland,” the city’s lord mayor Thomas Kastrup-Larsen said in a press statement.

“I’m delighted that one of the world’s most prominent people sees potential in visiting Aalborg to share his visions about such topics as leadership and entrepreneurship,” he added.

READ ALSO: Trump baby blimp to fly over Denmark protests

Article updated on August 21st, 2019 to reflect President Trump's postponement of his September 2nd-3rd state visit to Denmark.

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