By Michael Bassewitz
That used to be a last-minute New Year’s speech. The turn of the year apparently came as a bit of a surprise for Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (57, SPD): In the last hours of the year, Lambrecht spoke into the shaky mobile phone camera in Berlin.
Numerous New Year’s Eve rockets and firecrackers are already exploding in the background – the capital is already in full celebration mode. It feels like there’s more shooting than in the Bundeswehr, and that’s before midnight!
Lambrecht himself is difficult to understand because of the shelling, says: “A war is raging in the middle of Europe.”
While fireworks explode behind the minister in Berlin, Kremlin tyrant Vladimir Putin is once again sending drones to Ukraine. The people of Kyiv have to ring in the New Year in bunkers.
According to the minister, the war in the Ukraine also gave Lambrecht “many special impressions”. “Many, many encounters with interesting, great people. I would like to say a heartfelt thank you for that.”
The minister’s voice is still hard to understand, the rockets exploding behind her are extremely loud, and the strong wind does the rest.
Finally, Lambrecht wishes “all of us” “a happy new year in 2023, which we hope will be healthy, happy and hopefully peaceful”.
Kreuzberg, corner of Kottbusser Damm: Officials are massively shot at with pyrotechnics Photo: Spreepicture
The minister’s whole speech seems improvised, as if she had forgotten to prepare it. As if she had to spontaneously find words that were overlaid by the explosive atmosphere of the hail of rockets in Berlin.
Lambrecht then explained that after her video speech for social media, she would “celebrate the turn of the year, with family and friends”.