German Governor Regrets Referring To Angela Merkel As 'Little Merkel'

Little Merkel: A German state governor Bodo Ramelow has apologised for his referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as "little Merkel". He said that his remarks were intentional and displayed macho behaviour. 

Ramelow is the governor of Thuringia state in Germany and he recently referred to Angela Merkel as "Merkelchen", which translates to 'little Markel' in English, during an online event. He told the Die Zeit, a German weekly, that he deeply regretted using the term for Merkel. He said that he should have used the term for male politicians instead, " Instead I spoke about a woman. That was dumb and appeared disrespectful". 

He added that he has personally apologised to Angela Merkel since the incident. 

According to reports, Ramelow,64, isn't new to controversies. He was earlier accused of playing a game named "Candy Crush" during meetings with German Chancellor Merkel and other governors. The meetings were held to discuss the matters related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ramelow admitted playing the game during meetings as he said that he only did so during leisure hours of the meetings when other members got busy replying to emails or smoking cigarettes. 

At the beginning of the year 2021, Angela Merkel announced that she might not run for chancellorship again. Merkel who has been the Chancellor of Germany since 2005 said that the year 2020 was the toughest year in her Chancellorship because of the pandemic. As she delivered her last New Year's address, she warned the citizens of Germany to take precautions during the pandemic and asked them to not indulge in conspiracy theories involving the vaccine. She said that she will herself take the vaccine when her turn comes. Read more about her here.