BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking before leaving office on Saturday in the final episode of a more than 600 weekly video podcast, urged Germans to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I once again ask you to take this difficult virus seriously,” Merkel told Germany as a “very serious” and even “dramatic” fourth coronavirus wave to hit parts of the country. asked for Said with overloaded intensive care units.
“The new Omicron version in particular appears to be more contagious than before. Get yourself vaccinated, whether it’s your first shot or a booster,” she said.
“Every vaccine helps.”
After 16 years in power, Merkel is expected to hand over the reins to Social Democrat Olaf Scholz after parliament voted on Wednesday to elect a new chancellor.
In his podcast, he thanked “those who are reasonable and sensible in this difficult period” and “stick to the rules to protect themselves and take care of others.”
“You are the vast majority in our country. You demonstrate the civic responsibility that is so wonderful about our country, without which no chancellor or government can achieve anything.”
People queue in front of a COVID-19 vaccination station in Stuttgart, Germany on December 3, 2021. (Thomas Kinzley/AFP)
One of Scholz’s first steps as head of government is expected to be passing a law making vaccination mandatory from February or March next year.
Much of the political spectrum is stuck behind the earlier controversial move.
Watching her first video podcast in 2006, Merkel recalled that “at the time it was very unusual for a head of government to address the public directly online.”
“My hope at the time, that the World Cup should be a great party even beyond the stadiums, was more than fulfilled,” she said, using the “summer fairy tale” German still applied to the football tournament held that year. Is. Huh.
While Merkel touched on a range of topics from digitization to anti-Semitism in podcasts during her time in office, over the past two years she has spoken frequently about the pandemic.