Angela Merkel

Addressing the Bundestag, Merkel said that vaccination is progressing better and better, that the number of infections is declining.

Merkel and the leaders of 16 German states should meet tomorrow to discuss whether steps can be taken to mitigate the measures that have been in force since November, and were tightened in mid-December, Reuters reports.
"We have to wait until March 1. My goal would be not to have to correct the reopening by introducing another lockdown," the chancellor said.

Turkey told Germany to immediately launch talks for the renewal of the 2016 migrant deal between Ankara and Brussels ahead of the EU Council meeting in late March.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a video conference with her Turkish counterpart President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, welcomed recent positive developments in the eastern Mediterranean, Germany said in a statement on Monday.

Turkey's oil and gas prospecting in eastern Mediterranean waters have been fiercely contested by Germany's European Union partners Cyprus and Greece.

"Turks and Germans loved each other for a long time," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a visit to Berlin in 2018. He was citing the historic words of Germany's first chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, which still seem to determine Berlin's policy on Ankara.

Angela Merkel's government is being criticized for the slowness of the vaccination campaign in relation to countries such as Great Britain or the United States. She called on the Germans to "endure some more time" and warned of the danger of various strains of COVID-19.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Jan. 30 congratulated the new leader of Germany's ruling party.

In a phone call, Erdoğan said he believed Armin Laschet, head of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), will continue Germany's positive relations with Turkey, according to a statement from Turkey's Communications Directorate.

The White House has revealed that Western Balkans is among the six priorities of the new US administration. This means that Serbia must be ready for new challenges, primarily pertaining to the Kosovo issue, writes Sputnik.

According to the daily "Bild", at the video conference with the heads of the CDU / CSU factions in both the Bundestag and the provincial assemblies, she spoke openly about the failure of the government.
"We lost control of the matter," the paper quoted the chancellor as saying.

There's probably not much German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government would like to adopt from Donald Trump presidency, but the treatment the former U.S. president received when diagnosed with Covid-19 last year appears to have caught her attention.