GERMAN PRESIDENT EXPECTED IN MADAGASCAR.

Now there were three. The German president will be the third international figure to have officially visited Madagascar after Francois Chirac, the French president who came in 2005 and Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations who came in March 2006. The press mentions specifically that unlike Kofi Annan, the official presidential calendar of Horst Kohler does not include any time spent with opposition party representatives. Midi says, ?The President of the Federal German Republic, Horst Kohler, will have no meeting with the opposition parties during his state visit to Madagascar on the 6th to 9th of next April. During the conference given by the German ambassador to CGM it was specifically stated that his chief of state?s calendar had been planned to meet a very rigid schedule and no modification would be allowed. Effectively, in planning his schedule the German president made no allowance for any meeting with the opposition.? Matera made mention that, ?Horst Kohler will make his second trip to Madagascar. He came here before in 2003 when he held the office of General Director of the International Monetary Fund. ?