http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080709141314.t3ju24gp&show_article=1
Merkel warns Obama not to use landmark for 'electioneering'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel slammed a request by Barack Obama to give
a
speech this month before the Brandenburg Gate as "inappropriate", her
deputy
spokesman said Wednesday.
The conservative leader said that while she would be pleased to meet the
US
Democratic presidential hopeful, it would be wrong for him to hold a
"campaign rally" at the historic symbol of German unity.
"It is unusual to do electioneering abroad," spokesman Thomas Steg told
re****ters.
"It is unusual to hold election rallies abroad. No German candidate for
high
office would even think of using the National Mall (in Wa****ngton) or Red
Square in Moscow for a rally because it would not be seen as appropriate."
Authorities in the capital have confirmed that Obama plans to visit Berlin
on July 24 and is interested in speaking at the foot of the Brandenburg
Gate.
The left-leaning government of the city-state, which has the sole right to
approve such a request, has not yet made a formal decision but Mayor Klaus
Wowereit gave his backing Tuesday.
Steg said Merkel had "limited understanding" for such a request and found
the Obama team's initiative "a bit odd". But he said it was up to
candidates
such as Obama to decide what was "in good taste".
The gate, built in the late 18th century under Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm II
as a symbol of peace, became the country's most prominent symbol of German
unification in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall the year before.
In an unusual move, a spokesman for Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier
sharply contradicted Merkel's views at a regular government press
conference, saying they could be interpreted in the United States as an
affront to Obama.
Foreign ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner said Steinmeier, a Social
Democrat,
was eager to meet Obama after speaking with him on the phone in April.
Republican presidential contender John McCain should also be welcome to
speak at the Brandenburg Gate if he chose to, he added.
"The foreign minister does not find it odd," he said, adding that an Obama
speech at or near the site would be "an expression of the vital
German-American friend****p" just days after Wa****ngton opened a new
embassy
next to the gate.
Ploetner rejected media re****ts that German diplomats in the United States
had actively courted Obama to speak at the Brandenburg Gate.
But he said that German envoys had talked with his campaign about possible
sites in Berlin he could visit such as the former Cold War border crossing
at Checkpoint Charlie or the Holocaust Memorial.
German officials have noted in recent days that only elected foreign
leaders
have been invited to hold speeches at the gate and not political
candidates.
These include the famous address at the landmark in 1987 by then US
president Ronald Reagan, who called out to Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev,
"Tear down this wall!"
Obama's staff said Saturday that he would visit France, Germany, Israel,
Jordan and Britain to discuss "common challenges" with countries "critical
to American national security". But it did not provide details of his
programme.
Despite the flap over his visit, the Illinois senator, who is vying to
become the first African-American US president, is wildly popular in
Germany.
A survey released this month showed that 72 percent of Germans back Obama
to
become the next US leader, against just 11 percent for his presumed
Republican opponent John McCain.
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