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As Chancellor Angela Merkel has so far given 15 New Year’s speeches. He had to respond to the crises that changed the world: “2014 will be remembered as a year that turned out differently than we could have imagined on New Year’s Eve a year ago,” he said after the start of the Ukraine conflict. He had to absorb death and mourning as in 2016 after several terrorist attacks, one of them shortly before the turn of the year in Berlin: “2016 was a year of difficult trials.” He had to consider economic crises like the one that followed the collapse of the financial system in late 2009: “I say this very frankly: we cannot expect the economic depression to end quickly.
In a New Year’s speech, the chancellor also appealed directly to the Germans when, in 2014, with a view to the Pegida movement, she warned: “That is why I tell everyone who goes to such demonstrations: do not follow those who call them.” ! “But he was also able to appreciate solidarity, as he did after the flood disaster in 2017, when he spoke of a second wave of” a completely different kind “-” an overwhelming wave of aid. “And already he was able to celebrate scientists as in 2008 after two Nobel prizes for German researchers: “It was not uncommon for the pioneering ideas of German inventors to change the world.”
In 2020 all this has to be in one direction.
Probably, the last appearance of the Chancellor at the beginning of the year will be dominated by the corona virus. “Something happened to us in 2020 that the world was not expecting,” Merkel said. The virus “invades our bodies and our lives.” Merkel calls the pandemic a “task of the century” and thanks citizens for their discipline. She pays tribute to the many helpers in medical and other areas who have outdone themselves. And it lists government subsidies “at an unprecedented level” to help the economy.
These are “difficult times for our country,” says the Chancellor.
Merkel also remembers the more than 30,000 who have died so far. On Wednesday alone, the Robert Koch Institute reported 1,129 virus-related deaths in 24 hours, more than ever. Merkel speaks of the pain of the afflicted, for whom he must feel bitter that some still deny the danger and for whom conspiracy theories are “cynical and cruel.”
The Chancellor dedicates the indispensable part of trust, especially to the first vaccinated. Hope has its faces. You will also get vaccinated “when it’s my turn.” Merkel pays tribute to Biontech CEOs Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci and their employees from 60 countries who developed the first vaccine. But it also lowers expectations that the crisis will end quickly. These are “difficult times for our country,” Merkel said. “And it will continue like this for quite some time.” The chancellor will know why.
Even before Merkel recorded her speech on Wednesday night, Health Minister Jens Spahn made it known that the next Federal Government meeting with the Prime Minister on January 5 is not expected to end the restrictions: he does not see “How can we get back to this situation.” pre-lock mode, “Spahn said.
The minister, however, considers that the start of vaccination has been “successful.” But over the course of Wednesday it became clear that the next cans will be slow to arrive. An announced delivery would not be superseded for some federal states, it was initially said, before the ministry announced a new delivery after negotiations with Biontech for at least January 8.
Merkel’s appearance, which ARD and ZDF will broadcast on New Year’s Eve, is very likely to be her last New Year’s speech. Only if the formation of a government takes until 2017 after the federal elections on September 26 will Merkel remain in office during the turn of the year.
If so, you could use two previous talks as a guide. If things go wrong and politicians are unable to speed up vaccines, for example, a phrase from late 2018 comes in handy when Merkel said after the false start of her third grand coalition: “I know many of you have had many problems with the German government. ” On the other hand, if things go well, the first sentence from late 2010 should come very close to reality ten years later: “Dear fellow citizens, let me be completely frank: when I was sitting here a year ago talking to you, I was with you. . confidently, he looked into the future with mixed feelings. “
But Merkel is probably sitting at home staring at her successor.
