After a busy week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is celebrating his 66th birthday at the G7 summit in Italy. Surrounded by heads of state and government, the US President sings “Happy Birthday”.
A kiss on the right, a kiss on the left from French President Emmanuel Macron, a friendly “oh happy birthday, man!” from US President Joe Biden: The German Chancellor is celebrating his 66th birthday at the G7 summit in Apulia, Italy.
On this occasion – surrounded by the participating heads of state and government of the democratic, leading industrial nations – Olaf Scholz is given a birthday serenade. “Did you sing Happy Birthday?” Biden asks the group. “We did,” answers British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The US President still happily sings “Happy Birthday”, as it is a tradition in his family: “In the Biden family, we also sing ‘Happy Birthday’ when it’s someone’s birthday!” The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel also sing along. The Chancellor’s social media team uploads the proof to his new Tiktok account:
Not the first serenade for Olaf Scholz
Scholz received his first birthday serenade in a helicopter, reports the AFP news agency, citing the German delegation. Scholz is accompanied in Apulia by his wife Britta Ernst. At midnight he was in a helicopter on the return flight from dinner with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the medieval Hohenstaufen castle Castello Svevo in Brindisi.
Afterwards, he celebrated at the summit venue, in the luxury resort “Borgo Egnazia”, with his closest colleagues and was surprised by them with a birthday cake, reports AFP.
Scholz is celebrating his birthday in a week that has not been one of the easiest of his chancellorship. The SPD had its worst result to date in the European elections with 13.9 percent. After the G7 conference, the chancellor will travel to Switzerland for the Ukraine peace conference. After that, he will have to continue to deal with the 2025 federal budget in Berlin, which the traffic light coalition has been debating for weeks.
Sources: Tiktok, information from the news agencies DPA and AFP
Source: Stern
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