Overview
- Angela Merkel will congratulate Chancellor Friedrich Merz with a personal handwritten note for his 70th birthday on 11 November.
- Her office confirmed she received an invitation to the CDU/CSU parliamentary reception but will not attend because she travels to Israel on 10 November to receive an honorary doctorate from the Weizmann Institute.
- The reception is scheduled in the Reichstag’s protocol hall with CDU/CSU lawmakers, Union minister-presidents, former faction leaders including Merkel, and Merz’s family invited.
- The relationship between Merkel and Merz has been strained, with public disagreements over migration policy, though Merkel recently praised his early foreign policy.
- Merz will be the first German chancellor over 70 since Konrad Adenauer.