Angela Merkel holiday pictures show chancellor’s softer side

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel may have become a byword for Teutonic financial rigour – and the insult of choice for some politicians in southern Europe – but a new set of

holiday pictures show a softer side.

Published in Germany’s biggest newspaper, Bild Zeitung, the photographs show Mrs Merkel on the beach in Italy with her husband Joachim Sauer and his grandchildren.

Mrs Merkel is shown strolling on the beach with a freshly plucked orange, helping one of the children clamber up a rocky slope, and in one shot, is even seen to smile.

Though friends say she has a lively sense of humour, it is rarely shown in public.

In the German press, she is usually described approvingly as “controlled” or “sober”. These images showcase a more laid-back side of Mrs Merkel.

“We’ve never seen Angela Merkel so relaxed,” the Bild headline declared. The article went on to note that she looked: “relaxed, normal, almost cheerful”.

Mrs Merkel is holidaying in the fishing village of Sant’Angelo, on the island of Ischia off the coast of Naples.

In recent days, she has been pictured in bathing costume about to take a dip in a pool. The latest images show her in hiking gear and include a shot of a family game of football on the beach.

The softening of her image may not be purely for the benefit of German voters – but a gesture to southern Europe too. She has been praised for making a private visit to a head waiter who was forced to leave his job at the Hotel Miramare, where the Chancellor is staying.

Mrs Merkel and her family are regular guests at the hotel and he had served her for decades before losing his job. The local mayor Rosario Caruso approved of her “lovely gesture”.

Ahead of German elections in September, Mrs Merkel enjoys strong popular support. A poll published by the respected Allensbach Institute in February showed 50 per cent favoured her to continue as Chancellor against 23 per cent who favoured her Social Democrat challenger Peer Steinbrueck. The distance between Mrs Merkel and her challenger had grown in recent months, the poll found./folbuzz.com/