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Markus Söder (CSU): "Welcome to Bavaria!"
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
World politics in an Alpine idyll - a perfect opportunity for Markus Söder, instinctive politician, CSU boss and Bavarian Prime Minister, to put himself in the limelight.
So Söder starts his computer.
"The world as guests in #Bavaria: Welcome to Bavaria!" he typed in a welcome tweet on Saturday afternoon.
"We welcome the most important heads of state in the world," he continues.
The free world organizes itself at the G7, and the current crises in the world show how important international coordination is.
Attached to the tweet: a collage of the Alps, Elmau Castle and the heads of the heads of government.
And a cheerful "Grüß Gott in Bavaria!"
But wait, isn't one missing?
Please count: US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
That's six.
One does not appear in the illustrious group of men: of all people, their own Chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
Where is Scholz?
Has he ever gone diving again?
Is he sitting in the tower of Schloss Elmau?
»If you will seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me«, encourages the historian Hedwig Richter with words from the Bible (Jeremiah 29, 13.14).
Some ask why Söder didn't take a picture of himself right away, the former CDU General Secretary Ruprecht Polenz simply calls Söder's omission "bad style".
Several Twitter users note that Söder welcomes the "heads of state" - and four of the six pictured are not heads of state but heads of government: Johnson, Draghi, Trudeau and Kishida.
Although that could also be the reason that Scholz is not shown: Scholz leads the government.
Head of state is Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
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