Photo Gallery A Rare Interview
On Thursday, US President Barack Obama gave a rare interview to the foreign press at the American Embassy in Berlin. He granted the interview to German public broadcaster ARD and DER SPIEGEL. The conversation, broadcast on Thursday night and published in a longer form today, was part of Obama's final trip to Germany as the US president.
A monitor during the filming of the interview with President Obama. In the interview, Obama warned that governments must pay attention to the effects of globalization and the people who feel left behind by it. "If we are able to address the legitimate economic concerns of those who feel left behind by globalization, then many of these tensions will be reduced" Obama said. "And we will see a world that is less divided. But if the global economy is unresponsive to people who feel left behind, if inequality continues to grow, then we could end up seeing more and more of these divisions arise throughout advanced economies around the world."
President Obama together with WDR reporter Sonia Seymour Mikich and SPIEGEL Editor in Chief Klaus Brinkbäumer. "My hope and expectation is that regardless of what the president-elect said during the campaign, he's going to have to look carefully at the realities when he moves forward," Obama told the journalists.
President Obama visited Germany for his last time as America's leader, but he said he has faith in German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "I do believe that Chancellor Merkel and Germany are a lynchpin in protecting the basic tenets of a liberal, market-based democratic order that has created unprecedented prosperity and security for Europe, but also for the world," he said.
