Friedrich Merz: Angela Merkel is not coming to his 70th birthday

The Union faction’s celebration of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s 70th birthday will take place without his predecessor Angela Merkel. “We have not recorded receipt of an invitation,” a spokeswoman for Merkel told the German Press Agency upon request. “Retired Chancellor Dr. Merkel would not be able to participate anyway because she is traveling abroad.”

Merz’s birthday is on November 11th and he will be the first Chancellor since Konrad Adenauer more than 60 years ago to be over 70. The CDU/CSU parliamentary group is hosting a reception for him on his special day in the protocol room of the Reichstag building. “Focus” first reported on this at the beginning of the week.

The invitations to the members of the Bundestag have already been sent. According to a parliamentary group spokesman, other guests are yet to be invited, including the Prime Minister of the Union. It initially remained unclear whether Merkel would also receive an invitation. A total of around 300 guests are expected to come to the birthday party.

Merz was there at the belated celebration of Merkel’s 70th birthday at the Berlin Academy of Sciences a year ago – not yet as chancellor at the time, but as Merkel’s successor at the head of the CDU. In a speech he thanked her for her “political life’s work” and wished her: “That you remain supportive of the CDU.”

At the time, the appearance was seen as a conciliatory act in a relationship between the two that had been deeply broken for decades. Under Merz, the Union has moved far away from the Merkel era; there are now only a few fans of her in the parliamentary group. Merkel came to the Bundestag in May for the election of Merz as Chancellor. After the first round of voting failed, she left parliament. The swearing-in of the Chancellor and Cabinet then took place without them.

The ex-Chancellor has repeatedly publicly criticized Merz as opposition leader and then as Chancellor. She described it as wrong that his CDU/CSU faction pushed through a migration resolution in the Bundestag with the votes of the AfD during the election campaign. She is also critical of the rejection of migrants at the German borders.

Most recently, she also expressly praised Merz – for his foreign policy in the first months of his term in office. “As a citizen, I think it’s good what Friedrich Merz did,” she said on the “Spiegel” talk show “Spitzentalk.” “To be honest, it’s a relief that Germany is once again appearing in Europe and the world with charm and voice.”