Chancellor Angela Merkel is trembling all over in front of the camera - she fights publicly against it three times in 2019.
Now, ex-EU council chief Juncker reveals the secret of the tremors.
Munich - There were pictures that worried many Germans in the summer of 2019: When Angela Merkel *, the otherwise so imperturbable, stepped off the honorary formation of the Bundeswehr with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj on June 18, 2019, she suddenly suffered a long-lasting tremor of arms and legs.
Merkel's trembling: Juncker reveals secret
After two more tremors in front of the cameras, doctors and psychologists came forward with remote diagnoses: Does the Chancellor have a puzzling nerve disease?
Was it the stress?
An official cause is never given.
Ex-EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker has now uncovered the riddle of Merkel's trembling attacks: The fault was not "psychological, mental reasons, but a latent fatigue," said Juncker in an RTL documentary about Angela Merkel.
He had already thought that way back then.
Juncker added: “This woman worked 17 or 18 hours a day.
Even seasoned men can't stand that. "
Chancellor Merkel is silent on tremor attacks
Merkel had never made any clear statements about the tremor attacks in public: at the time, she assured her that she was aware of the responsibility of her office and acted accordingly - also when it came to her health.
"And secondly, you can assume that I, as a person, have a great personal interest in being healthy and taking care of my health," said Merkel at the time.
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June 18, 2019: Merkel's first tremor attack when receiving Ukrainian President Zelenskyi.
© Wolfgang Kumm / dpa
It is known about the Chancellor that she gets by with little sleep - and can therefore force less resistant colleagues to compromise in nightly negotiations.
Merkel herself said that she could sleep in advance, like a camel can take in water in advance.
“I saw her in many nightly sessions, and she was awake,” Juncker recalls.
You have to master that in international politics, sleep briefly, take a little nap again and again, the EU veteran continues.
However, the Chancellor also showed clear signs of fatigue in the summer of 2021 *.
Merkel: "I am now afraid that this will happen again and again."
After her second tremor when she said goodbye to Katarina Barley (SPD) as Federal Minister of Justice at Bellevue Palace, Merkel confessed to Juncker: “I am now afraid that this will happen again and again.” At that time, she tried to hide her tremors behind crossed arms.
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July 11, 2019: State reception sitting down: Denmark's Mette Frederiksen also sits down out of solidarity.
© Michael Kappeler / dpa
After a tremor attack - Merkel changes protocol at state reception
A little later there was even a third public tremor - at the reception of the Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne.
After that, Merkel only received her state guests sitting down for a while - for example the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who, contrary to the protocol, also sat down to listen to the national anthems out of solidarity.
Having to receive foreign state guests while sitting was "very annoying", Juncker reports from the talks with the Chancellor.
In her 16 years as Chancellor Merkel occasionally emphasized that she got by with little sleep at times.
She had certain "camel-like abilities", she joked in 2013 at
Brigitte
.
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