MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Merkel implores Germans to reduce social contacts during Xmas; lockdown until January 10

Merkel's rare show of emotion was seen as a sign of impatience with the difficulties - and now criticism - she faces as she tries to steer COVID-19 second wave

Chancellor Angela Merkel banged the podium in frustration as she implored Germans this month to reduce social contacts to curb the spread of COVID-19. At one point in her unusually passionate address to parliament, during which she was heckled, she brought her hands together as if in prayer. At others, she shook her fist.

“I want to say this: if we have too much contact over Christmas, and afterwards it turns out that that was the last Christmas with the grandparents, then we will have really messed up and we should not mess up!” she said.

Merkel's rare show of emotion was widely seen as a sign of impatience with the difficulties - and now criticism - she faces as she tries to steer Europe's biggest economy through a second wave of COVID-19.

Merkel, a physicist, won plaudits for her handling of the first wave, when she swiftly locked Germany down and then lifted restrictions sooner than in other countries, easing the economic pain.

But her government has come under fire as COVID-19 cases rise again, even though Germany is still faring better than many other European countries and she is hobbled by a political system built around consensus.

After months of warnings from virologists about a looming surge, Germany began a full-scale lockdown on Wednesday that is due to last until at least Jan. 10. As shops and schools shut, the death toll jumped by 952, the highest daily increases.

Merkel's conservative Bavarian ally Markus Soeder says the situation is “out of control” and Der Spiegel magazine referred to her strategy as “The winter failure”.

“The bitter truth is that Germany has to close not solely because of corona but also because of the political handling of corona,” top-selling daily Bild wrote.

Criticism of Merkel, 66, has been compounded by other countries rolling out a COVID-19 vaccine partly developed in Germany but not yet authorized for use there.

Berlin is awaiting regulatory approval from the European Union for the vaccine developed by Germany's BioNTech and U.S. company Pfizer.

Health Minister Jens Spahn has been ridiculed for saying in early November it would be hard to explain if a vaccine produced in Germany was used elsewhere first.

“We underestimated this virus,” said Saxony premier Michael Kretschmer, who warned in October against virus “hysteria” but ended up imposing a state-wide lockdown two days before the rest of Germany.