Great world leaders on Sunday enjoyed joking about the manly image willingly projected by Russian President Vladimir Putin, wondering if they could take off their jackets, or even more, at the opening of the G7 summit in Germany.
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“Do we keep the jackets? Shall we take them off?” asks British Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he sits at the work table at Elmau Castle in Germany where Chancellor Olaf Schultz hosts the leaders of the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and the European Union.
Then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested waiting for the official photo to drop the jacket, but Boris Johnson fired: “We must show that we are stronger than Putin.” And humor inspires others.
“We will deal with a show of riding a topless horse,” Trudeau adds, referring to a famous photo session of Vladimir Putin on horseback topless in 2009.
“Riding is best,” says Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President – the only woman at this meeting – without apparently commenting on the issue of clothing itself.
“We have to show them the chest muscles,” Boris Johnson insists.
Finally the outfit was put on, after simply removing the ties, the seven leaders took their place on the podium of the traditional family portrait.
