Angela Merkel: Those were your most emotional moments

Angela Merkel
Those were her most emotional moments

Angela Merkel in December in the Bundestag

© imago images / Jens Schicke

Angela Merkel is particularly popular because of her composed demeanor. Sometimes – like now in the Bundestag – the hard shell breaks.

There are not many moments in Angela Merkel's (66) 15-year-old chancellor that could be called "emotional". The speech she has now given in the Bundestag to plead for a quick tightening of the corona measures is definitely one of them. With big gestures, clenched fists and sometimes a broken voice, Merkel pleaded: "If we now have too many contacts before Christmas and then it was the last Christmas with the grandparents, then we will have missed something, we shouldn't do that." She is "really sorry in my heart" for the harshness of the measures, but 590 deaths a day are not acceptable. The media describe the appeal as "Merkel's outburst" and "most emotional speech". But there are also other moments that have troubled the Chancellor in her political career.

Corona, the first

Not quite as emotional as in December, but just as urgently, the Chancellor was already at the beginning of the pandemic – including the planned "slip of the tongue" for the drama. "It's serious. Take it seriously. Since German unification, no, since the Second World War, there has been no more challenge to our country that depends so much on our joint action in solidarity," she said on March 18 with a haunting look into the camera. It was the first televised address of her term in office in which she addressed the public on current occasions. Even then, the newspapers spoke of an unusually emotional address for Merkel.

"Then this is not my country"

2015, in the middle of the refugee crisis. At the federal press conference, Merkel made history with her core slogan on the welcoming culture: "We can do it." She will have to justify this attitude and keeping the borders open for a long time to come. A few weeks later, at a press conference with Austria's Chancellor Werner Faymann (60), her patience seems to have burst in this regard: "I have to be very honest when we start to apologize for being in an emergency situation Show a friendly face, then this is not my country. "

The most uncomfortable moment

As I said, the refugee issue was pursued by Merkel. The awkward moment when she had to explain to a Palestinian girl with big dreams but uncertain residence status that she could not help is also remembered. In a dialogue with students in Rostock, she had to tell her face that she couldn't promise her anything: "Some will have to go back …" When the girl starts to cry, Merkel is so uncomfortable about the situation that she Knowing how to help herself other than to want to "stroke the crying girl anyway".

Understanding of East Germans

Another topic that Merkel seems to have touched personally is the fall of the Berlin Wall: in a passionate appeal in 2019, she campaigned for more understanding for the frustration of East Germans. At the summer press conference in Berlin, the Chancellor, who herself grew up in the GDR, said: "The problem of living in the GDR is simply that you have done so much that is no longer needed in the old Federal Republic."

They would have developed techniques and East German skills for life that are no longer needed today. "And of course that worries you sometimes," said the Chancellor. "We were there, they were hardworking in the GDR." After her thoughtful answer, the Chancellor even apologized for her dissolute answer.

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