Germany’s interior minister refused to shake Angela Merkel’s hand today amid a growing coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Horst Seehofer rebuffed the chancellor’s outstretched hand at a summit in Berlin this morning – refusing to make an exception to a self-imposed handshake ban.
Merkel took the snub in good spirits, withdrawing her hand and laughing with the Bavarian minister who has frequently been a thorn in her side.
‘That is the right thing to do,’ she said as she took her seat while guests at the meeting also burst out laughing.
Rejected: German interior minister Horst Seehofer turns away Angela Merkel’s offer of a handshake this morning after revealing he had stopped shaking hands over virus fears
No response: Seehofer refused to shake the chancellor’s hand at a summit at the federal chancellery in Berlin this morning
Seehofer had told German media yesterday that he had stopped shaking people’s hands, adding that he hoped a vaccine would be found within months.
Asked whether Germany would go so far as to close off access to cities or regions, he said ‘such a scenario would be a last resort’.
‘I estimate that a vaccine will be available by the end of year,’ he told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Merkel, 65, and Seehofer, 70, have had plenty of tensions in their relationship in recent years, with the interior minister taking a hard line on refugees after Merkel opened Germany’s doors in 2015, but today’s encounter was more good-natured.
Germany has not issued a general warning against handshakes, unlike France where health minister Olivier Veran recommended that people refrain from the greeting.
The number of people infected in Germany jumped sharply to 129 yesterday, official data showed.
The latest tally given by the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s centre for disease control, showed that the number of cases had almost doubled from 66.
Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia has emerged as a hotspot after an infected couple attended carnival parties there, infecting dozens of people.
Offer: Merkel stretches out her hand to Seehofer, with whom she has often clashed
Refusal: Seehofer makes his point by turning away the chancellor’s handshake
Several hundred people were kept in quarantine in their homes in the district of Heinsberg, although they have since been allowed to leave again.
The cluster there has been linked to a carnival gathering on February 15.
Four kindergarten children in Heinsberg also tested positive for the new coronavirus at the weekend, apparently contracted through a member of staff.
The deadly virus has now reached nine of Germany’s 16 states, with Frankfurt, Hamburg and Bremen among the cities reporting their first cases.
In Bavaria, machine tool manufacturer DMG Mori asked some 1,600 employees not to come to work on Monday after a worker contracted the virus.
Germany has cancelled several major gatherings in a bid to curb the spread of the virus, including this week’s ITB travel trade fair in Berlin.
The Michelin Guide restaurant awards slated to take place in Hamburg on Tuesday have also been called off.
Understood: Merkel acknowledges Seehofer’s point and withdraws her hand
Good spirits: Merkel laughed at the snub and said it was the ‘right thing to do’
Organisers of the Leipzig book fair however said the event, which attracted over 280,000 people last year, would go ahead as planned from March 12-15.
As the coronavirus continues to disrupt air travel and supply chains around the world, finance minister Olaf Scholz said the government stood ready to stimulate Germany’s export-driven economy if the impact worsened.
‘If the situation calls for it, we have the means to launch a fiscal stimulus package,’ he told Die Welt newspaper.
The meeting in Berlin today was a so-called ‘integration summit’ with Merkel meeting representatives of migrant groups in the wake of several far-right attacks.
A 43-year-old German man shot dead nine people with migrant backgrounds in the Frankfurt suburb of Hanau last month.
Merkel said her government had already initiated a package of measures following last year’s shooting at a synagogue in Halle and ‘we hope that this will have an effect.’
But she added that ‘this doesn’t change the way you feel’ and said she wanted to hear from migrant groups what else the government can do to reassure ‘everyone in this country, regardless of their skin color or faith’ of their fundamental rights.