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Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU)
Photo: Pool / Getty Images
Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated US President-elect Joe Biden and future Vice President Kamala Harris on their election victory.
She remembers "good conversations" with Biden, he has decades of political experience, said Merkel in Berlin.
But she is especially happy to get to know Harris.
As the first woman in office and the child of second immigrants, she is "an inspiration to many people in the USA".
In a difficult time, Biden and Harris were given great responsibility by the voters, Merkel said.
Germany too has to work harder, both nations "have to stand together in order to master the challenges of our time".
Merkel named among other things the corona pandemic, global warming and the fight against terrorism.
She never mentioned the name Donald Trump.
According to calculations by the major US television stations, the Democrat Joe Biden won the presidential election last weekend.
Kamala Harris was elected the first woman, first black, and first American with Indian roots to serve as US Vice President.
The previous incumbent Donald Trump does not want to come to terms with the defeat and has called on lawyers.
The German-American relationship had cooled off during his tenure.
Merkel's congratulations were now also an attempt to revitalize this relationship.
The USA has always been a strong partner for Germany, but can "rightly expect more of its own efforts".
Merkel described the German-American friendship as a "common treasure" that had to be worked on further.
The Chancellor also used the date to commemorate the two German anniversaries on November 9th.
The pogroms against fellow Jews in 1938 and the opening of the Berlin Wall were "the worst and the best in our history".
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