On Tuesday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) welcomed around 140 carnival revelers from all German states in the Chancellery. “Man, it could be so cheerful here” he told the fools.
Merz said he has a bit of a carnival bond, starting with his birth on 11 November 1955 and his Rhine‑born grandmother from Andernach. In a witty aside he explained that over the past century he had three chances to celebrate his birthday with “nice schnapps numbers”: on 11 November 1977 he turned 22, on 11 November 1988 he was 33, and on 11 November 1999 he reached 44. “Can any of you top that?” he asked. “Since the turn of the millennium the snappy sequence has ended”.
Because he hails from the Sauerland near Cologne, he enjoys both carnival and the local Schützenfeste. “Most of you don’t have that privilege” he told the gathering, “so you’re exactly where you should be”.
Later that day he will meet parts of the federal cabinet and hopes to bring a little of the carnival spirit into those sessions. He added that on the day of Weiberfastnacht near Brussels he spent the whole day in a closed setting discussing the competitiveness of European industry-a schedule he hadn’t expected. “I would have liked to be in carnival mode then, too” he laughed. “The only immediate benefit for me is that I’ve saved my tie”.