Conservative CDU candidate Chancellor Armin Laschet apologized for his “inappropriate” laughter at the tragic floods in West Germany. The premiere of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and a possible successor, Angela Merkel, was captured by cameras laughing in the background behind President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who had just spoken to the media in Erfstadt, one of the worst affected areas.
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A turning point for Merkel’s successor? The video from the press outraged Germany overwhelmed. | Video: Reuters
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Experienced politician Laschet, who is the favorite of the September elections, apologized on Twitter for saying that his behavior was “inappropriate”. “The way in which Armin Laschet jokes in the background while the president talks about the victims is rude and outrageous,” Lars Klingbeil, secretary general of the Social Democrats (SPD), told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
Although the SPD is currently forming a grand coalition with Chancellor Merkel’s CDU, it is running against it in the September 26 elections. “It is said that in times of crisis, the true nature of man will be revealed,” Klingbeil told the paper, adding that Laschet had been “disqualified.”
He was also attacked by the liberal FDP party, whose vice-president Michael Theurer said that “fooling around without a veil while the president remembers the victims is not commensurate with the gravity of the situation.”
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