Armin laschet regrets laughing at witty remarks even before his party lost at the polls
A clip of Angela Merkel’s ‘successor’ Armin Laschet laughing amid a briefing on deadly flooding in Germany has been credited with him losing a lot of support ahead of the vote. Media now claim they are aware of the joke.
Laschet, who was trusted to lead Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) into this year’s federal parliamentary election, was filmed enjoying what looked like a good laugh when touring Erftstadt, one of many small German towns devastated by severe flooding, in July.
This clip went viral immediately and was especially poorly received because Laschet was caught on camera laughing as Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German President, delivered a speech about the damages done to the victims.
Laschet apologised for his actions following the backlash “inappropriately,”He later publicly regrets not being able to keep his mouth shut. Months later, CDU lost a historic election in September and was excluded from the government coalition.
However, the joke itself apparently remained a mystery, until New Year’s Eve. According to the German news agency RND, it wasn’t at all related to the flooding disaster.
Laschet was reportedly having fun with Frank Rock at the local party, and he allegedly noted that Rock introduced Rock as the president. “Mister Steinmeier,”Instead of “Mister Federal President.”Rock responded with humor.
RND reports that he told Laschet, lightheartedly, how surprised he was to see Steinmeier “as short as you” – a comment that prompted more laugher from Laschet.
It isn’t entirely clear what impact the laughing scandal had on Laschet’s performance at the polls, as opposed to the CDU’s and Merkel’s prior policies but, in its report, the outlet called it “the turning point in the election campaign.”
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