- Title: Germans praise U.S. President Obama on his farewell visit to Berlin
- Date: 17th November 2016
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (NOVEMBER 17, 2016) (REUTERS) WIDE OF HOTEL ADLON, WHERE U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA IS STAYING POLICEMEN ON ROOFTOP OF HOTEL POLICEMEN STANDING BESIDE BARRIER BLOCKED OFF STREET CROSSING IN FRONT OF HOTEL (SOUNDBITE) (German) PASSERBY, NICOLAI BERNHARDT, SAYING: "Of course we are going to miss him, especially with view to the new president. There are also voices saying that he is controversial, but in total I think he was a very good president, especially with regards to the new one, where one has a quite uneasy feeling, even though in recent days there are reports about Obama taking care of Trump and filling him in and leading him a bit, which I think is very good and clever. We are going to miss him." (SOUNDBITE) (German) PASSERBY, BARBARA FRANKE, SAYING "He was friendly, I think he was peaceful as much as you can judge this from the outside, peace-loving, not polemic, I found that very likeable. He was likeable as a human being." POLICEMEN ON ROOFTOP OF HOTEL (SOUNDBITE) (German) PASSERBY, JANNIS LUDEWIG, SAYING: "We are seeing the perspectives being discussed now. With President Obama we had what [former German chancellor] Helmut Kohl said in the past, a reliable and predictable president. And we hope that it's going to be the same with the new president, we don't know that for sure yet, but we knew it about Mr. Obama. Some expectations were disenthralled, when you think about the high-flying ideas when he took over office, but he was a reliable and predictable partner and this is most important in politics." FRENCH PRIME MINISTER MANUEL VALLS ARRIVING AT HOTEL ADLON TO ATTEND ECONOMIC CONFERENCE POLICEMEN STANDING ON STREET WIDE OF BLOCKED OFF STREET CROSSING IN FRONT OF HOTEL ADLON MOTORCADE WITH OBAMA DRIVING TOWARDS U.S. EMBASSY MOTORCADE DRIVING BY
- Embargoed: 2nd December 2016 11:05
- Keywords: Obama U.S. President Germany
- Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
- City: BERLIN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Diplomacy/Foreign Policy,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00158U1WEF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Germans walking by Berlin's city centre on Thursday (November 17) praised the outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama, who stayed not far from them at the Hotel Adlon located next to the iconic Brandenburg Gate.
"Of course we are going to miss him, especially with view to the new president," said Nicolai Bernhardt and another passerby, Barbara Franke, added:
"He was friendly, I think he was peaceful as much as you can judge this from the outside, peaceloving, not polemic, I very much liked this. He was likeable as a human being."
Jannis Ludewig underlined that Obama fulfilled the most important criteria for a politician: "reliable and predictable".
"And we hope that it's going to be the same with the new president, we don't know that for sure yet, but we knew it about Mr. Obama," he said.
Obama's two-day visit is part of his European farewell tour. On Thursday he is set to meet with Merkel and then on Friday (November 18) the leaders of France, Spain, Italy and the UK.
On his last overseas trip before successor Donald Trump takes office in January, Obama is seeking to reassure European allies who are concerned about the implications of a Trump presidency.
Trump garnered support on the back of promises to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, ban Muslims temporarily from entering the United States and rip up trade deals that he said had hurt American workers.
Obama opposed those positions and is fighting now to keep his legacy accomplishments on healthcare, climate change, and nuclear diplomacy alive in the face of Trump's promises to dismantle them. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None