As soon of you might know, our little Sarko is running around trying to solve the world's problems. From Georgia to Brussels via Afghanistan, he's busy as a bee on speed. But that maybe be simply because other world leaders, Obama, Zapatero, Merkel, are so incompetent.
Quote:
The media buzz was sparked by a French press report that Sarkozy let rip at fellow world leaders during a lunch on Wednesday with parliament members to discuss the global financial crisis.
The right-wing president, who has a reputation for blunt talking, reportedly suggested that the new US president was seriously lacking in hands-on experience of government and not yet up to speed.
"Obama has a subtle mind, very clever and very charismatic," Sarkozy was quoted as saying by a parliamentarian in the left-wing Liberation daily. "But he was elected two months ago and had never run a ministry.
"And he is not always up to standard on decision-making and efficiency," he reportedly said.
On Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, he was quoted as saying over dessert: "Perhaps he's not very clever but I know people who were very clever and who didn't make the second round of the presidential election."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also allegedly targeted, with the French president reportedly saying she merely followed his lead in her response to the global crisis.
"Once she realised the state of her banks and her car industry, she had no choice but to come round to my position," he was quoted as saying.
The right-wing president, who has a reputation for blunt talking, reportedly suggested that the new US president was seriously lacking in hands-on experience of government and not yet up to speed.
"Obama has a subtle mind, very clever and very charismatic," Sarkozy was quoted as saying by a parliamentarian in the left-wing Liberation daily. "But he was elected two months ago and had never run a ministry.
"And he is not always up to standard on decision-making and efficiency," he reportedly said.
On Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, he was quoted as saying over dessert: "Perhaps he's not very clever but I know people who were very clever and who didn't make the second round of the presidential election."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was also allegedly targeted, with the French president reportedly saying she merely followed his lead in her response to the global crisis.
"Once she realised the state of her banks and her car industry, she had no choice but to come round to my position," he was quoted as saying.
I have to say, though, none of this is especially shocking. In context, I'm sure it wasn't that bad.
The only surprising thing is that he didn't indulge in a little Brown bashing. So very un-French.