Chancellor Angela Merkel’s New Year’s speeches have typically been aspirational exercises in political agenda setting, touching on dozens of broad themes, and sometimes presenting her latest projects for Germany.

But Merkel’s speech this year, her 16th as chancellor, is noticeably different. For what is almost certainly her last New Year’s Eve speech as the government’s leader, as she is expected to leave office in 2021, she focuses on a single topic: the coronavirus.

“The coronavirus pandemic was and is a once-in-a-century political, social and economic challenge,” Merkel says in the annual pre-recorded televised speech that is watched by millions of German households.

The pandemic has killed more than 33,000 people in Germany and sickened hundreds of thousands more. And even if generous government subsidies have averted much of the widespread economic pain that other countries have experienced, long-term economic consequences loom for the nation.

As the speech makes clear, the pandemic has upended Merkel’s last full year in office, upsetting a period in which she hoped to cement her legacy with leadership on issues like climate change, digital transformation and a robust social state.

Abroad, Merkel had hoped to focus on tackling issues like refugees and EU unity as Brexit played out. Instead, she spent much of her time during Germany’s six-month term in the European Council’s rotating presidency travelling to Brussels for meetings to persuade EU members to break budget rules and set up a fund to counter the economic effects of the pandemic.

New York Times News Service