Merkel and Her Successor Played Politics and Let Covid Run Wild
- Scholz spurned a Merkel proposal for a pandemic-crisis meeting
- Germany’s Covid rate has surged to double the spring peak
Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz during the G20 summit in Rome, on Oct. 31.
Photographer: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
On the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit last month, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned her likely successor that the coronavirus pandemic might require tougher curbs. But Olaf Scholz brushed aside the proposal, and Germany is now paying the price.
At the Rome meeting in late October, where Merkel introduced Scholz to other world leaders, she proposed convening the premiers of Germany’s 16 states to coordinate a response to rising Covid-19 infections. He dismissed it as unnecessary, according to people familiar with the discussions.