While being very popular overseas, President Barack Obama and Europe still have disagreements, French university lecturer Olivier Richomme told Sacramento State students Wednesday.

The University of Lyon lecturer talked at the University Union about Obama’s recent journey to the G-20 summit in London and Europe’s perception of the new president, especially from French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“One of his main goals was showing that America is on a different path,” Richomme said. “He is rebranding American. The demonstrations at the G-20 would have been much different if Bush was there.”

He pointed out a number of disagreements between Obama and Sarkozy, including the American economic stimulus plan and Turkey’s possible membership to the European Union.

One of Obama’s main goals at the G-20 conference was to convince European Union countries to follow the route of the United States and the United Kingdom and implement large economic stimulus packages.

Richomme said France and Germany opposed the stimulus packages because their countries’ economic situation was different from America and Britain.

He said growth in the United States and Britain is based around private debt, concerning the growth of private companies. In France and Germany, growth is based on public debt, growth in the public sector like with public health organizations.

“These stimulus plans would possibly endanger the economies of these counties,” Richomme said.

When Obama visited Turkey after the G-20, he said he supported Turkey becoming a member of the European Union. Richomme said most of the European Union is apprehensive of the idea.

He said there were many concerns from France’s side with Turkey’s admission into the Union, including Turkey’s unwillingness to label the Armenia genocide as a genocide, expanding the border of the European Union to Iraq and the fear of more Muslims coming into Western Europe.

But, he also said France does a lot of business with Turkey and they could possibly provide a pathway to transport oil to Western Europe from the Middle East.

Richomme said it would be awhile before Turkey entered into a political union with the European Union, but other agreements may form in the close future.

“We will probably see a multilateral union with Turkey, involving military and economic unions,” Richomme said.

Sophomore kinesiology major Richard Walker attended the packed lecture and said he gained insight on the relations between France and the United States.

“I though it was interesting to find out how popular Obama is overseas and how different the protest would have been if Bush was there,” Walker said.

Sophomore geography major Rachel Stewart came with Walker and said it was enjoyable, but was upset at how many students left during the lecture.

“I feel like Sac State doesn’t have a good representation when it comes to things like this,” Stewart said. “I mean, so many people left while he was talking.”

Michael Mette can be reached at [email protected].