In 2020, Angela Merkel as  Chancellor addressed the country's citizens for the last time. Unsurprisingly, she devoted the greatest part of her speech to the coronavirus pandemic, which Merkel called the problem of the century. "It is serious. Take it seriously. Since German reunification, actually, since World War Two, there has never been a challenge for our country in which acting in solidarity was so very crucial," she underlined.

"I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that never in the past 15 years have we all experienced such a difficult year. The coronavirus pandemic was and is a once-in-a-century political, social and economic challenge. It is a historic crisis that has demanded a great deal of all of us and too much of some of us," Merkel noted.

"The coronavirus is currently changing life in our country dramatically. Our ideas of normality, of public life, of social interaction - all of these are being put to the test as never before," she said.  She highlights that a previously unknown virus penetrates our bodies and threatens our lives, turning our usual everyday lifestyle into a risk, and completely unusual protection measures into normality.  Merkel assures people that she will certainly become a participant in the program but without any preferences due to her governmental position and will wait for the queue established by law.

The chancellor highlighted that 2020 might be her last year in office hinting that she would not take part in the election. "This is most likely the last time that I will speak to you as chancellor in a new year address,” she said in Thursday’s message.