Overview
- Merkel’s spokeswoman confirmed she will congratulate Chancellor Friedrich Merz with a handwritten note and will not attend the celebration because she will be in Israel to receive an honorary doctorate from the Weizmann Institute on November 10.
- The CDU/CSU parliamentary group plans a reception for Merz on November 11 in the Protocol Hall of the Reichstag, and Merkel has received an invitation to the event.
- Merz turns 70 on November 11, becoming the first German chancellor older than 70 since Konrad Adenauer more than six decades ago.
- Their relationship is described as strained, with Merkel criticizing Merz’s asylum and migration stance and Merz accusing her of serious mistakes on refugee policy, though Merkel recently praised his early foreign-policy approach.
- Merz attended Merkel’s belated 70th celebration last year and publicly thanked her for her political legacy as the then CDU leader.