Merkel’s farewell present makes Welke stunned – “16 years you break and then there is something like that”

Chancellor Angela Merkel is bid farewell with a modest present. Moderator Olli Welke from ZDF “heute Show” cannot believe that.

Berlin / Munich – The Angela Merkel era is over. After four legislative terms as Federal Chancellor, the “mother of the nation” has retired. At the (for the time being) last appearance in the Chancellery in Berlin, the 67-year-old was sent with warm words into the now quieter phase of life. Long-term political companions such as the heads of state Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson also praised the ex-Chancellor.

In addition, Merkel received one or two farewell gifts in the capital on Wednesday (December 8). According to information from German press agency around a bread box and hiking sticks. No wonder, after all, the Union politician, who was born in Hamburg, is an avowed hiking friend.

Angela Merkel gets a lunch box and hiking shoes – but no Thermomix

For “heute Show” presenter Oliver Welke, however, the gesture by the chairman of the staff council of the Federal Chancellery was a kind of indictment. “For 16 years you’ve been ruining yourself for this country and then there’s a lunch box ?! Well, that’s the way it is. You probably only get the Thermomix after 20 years, ”jokes the front man of the ZDF satirical show. According to him, Karl Lauterbach only became Minister of Health so that he “would break up with Markus Lanz because he was so busy,” said Welke, alluding to his permanent presence in TV panel discussions.

Incidentally, no one would have earned the Thermomix – a rather expensive but also practical kitchen appliance: After all, Merkel and predecessor Helmut Kohl (1982-1998), the two longest office holders, have “only” 16 years.

Merkel farewell and Scholz welcome: SPD no longer a “notorious complaining party”?

What the “heute-Show” presenter did not mention: In addition to these presents, Angela Merkel received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from her successor Olaf Scholz (SPD). And finally there is also the generous pension that the Chancellor can look forward to for the rest of her life.

Welke also had a funny thesis on Merkel’s successor and new Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz: He had transformed his “notorious complaining party” SPD into a “quietly purring power machine”.

Meanwhile, an ARD presenter confuses Scholz with a long-dead chancellor – the Tagesschau itself thinks that’s funny. (PF)