Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany was seen again shaking uncontrollably, the third time in less than a month, renewing concerns about her health.
Merkel, 64, was attending an event Wednesday with Antti Rinne, the prime minister of Finland. As the pair watched a military honor guard, her arms and legs trembled and she seemed to be mouthing something repeatedly. At one point, she clasped her hands in front of her, trying to control the shaking.
An hour later, at a press briefing with reporters, she declared: “I am well.”
When a reporter followed up with another question about her tremors, Merkel claimed the shaking was “part of the psychological trauma she suffered after experiencing uncontrolled trembling under similar circumstances on June 18, while appearing with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in the full afternoon sun,” the New York Times reported.
“I was clear in saying that I am doing well and I think that can be accepted,” Merkel said Wednesday. “I said that I’m trying to come to grips with standing out there shaking while Mr. Zelensky visited and I think it’s going to blow over sometime soon.”
“I’m not yet there yet, but I’m convinced that I am quite capable of doing my work.”
After the first incident, Merkel’s aides said she was simply dehydrated. She appeared fine in a later press conference. Nine days later, in an event with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, she began shaking uncontrollably again. She said then that the episode was linked to what occurred during Zelensky’s visit.
“I must live with this for a little while,” Merkel said on Wednesday. “But I think that just as it has come, it will go away again.”
