The biggest German daily Bild claimed Friday that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party was practicing “censorship” regarding the repeated shaking spells she has suffered for almost a month.
Bild’s internet site expressed surprise that the CDU was acting “as though Angela Merkel never had three trembling attacks.” Speculation is swirling about the cause of Merkel’s condition, but the widely-read daily said three clear episodes of shaking in public were “a taboo subject” within the CDU. The conservative party did not mention them in press reviews sent each day to its leaders, even though the “mysterious trembling crises” are “the number one topic in German media,” Bild said.
On Thursday, Merkel remained seated as the Danish and German anthems were played during a ceremony, in a rare change of protocol after suffering her third bout of shaking the previous day.
At almost 65, and the head of Germany’s government for almost 14 years, Merkel has insisted that she takes care of her health and is doing “very well.”
The German chancellor has said that her first bout of shaking on June 18 during a ceremony with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky provoked a psychosomatic reaction that was responsible for those that followed.
Bild said Merkel has undergone intensive medical tests since the first incident, which was blamed on dehydration amid a heat wave that had swept over Berlin.
