The President (Præsidenten)

The incisive and unsettling story about the man who became the first President of Europe… against his own will. Told in a charged and unflinching manner by current and former heads of state, The President shows how Europe got its first president and offers stunning insight into why the EU, time and again, fails whenever big decisions have to be made.

Guldbrandsen and his crew travelled the continent for almost two years to gather material for the film. They interviewed dozens of the key figures of the time, including former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, French president Giscard d'Estaing, German foreign minister Joschka Fischer and president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, as well as a number of civil servants.

“How did the post of European president get to be created? And how did someone completely unknown to most Europeans end up in it? The hour-long film presents the struggle by Europe's top politicians to get a president elected… It reveals for the first time how German and French leaders, Schroeder and Chirac, agreed at a breakfast not to give Berlusconi the honour of striking a deal on the European Constitution during the Italian EU presidency. Schroeder and Chirac got their way… Another political drama explored in the film was the legendary Franco-German deal on farm subsidies in 2006. Struck between Chirac and Schroeder in Brussels' fashionable Hotel Conrad ahead of full EU leaders' summit, it took everybody by surprise, particularly the Brits…

For his part, Herman Van Rompuy, the man who eventually became EU president, notes how he turned down the post three times. But in the end, faced with 26 other leaders urging him to take the job, he gave in…

Director: Christoffer Guldbrandsen
Runtime: 58 min
Genre: Documentary
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Production Year: 2011

The screening is part of the Danish Documentary Week