German Chancellor Olaf Scholz injured his face on Saturday when he fell while jogging, and released a photo of himself with an eyepatch on Monday, sparking an avalanche of well wishes for a speedy recovery as well as jokes and memes on social networks for his bad pirate appearance.
The ruler himself humorously anticipated the reactions – and encouraged them, in an intelligent exercise of political communication – by writing on the X network (formerly Twitter): “I am looking forward to the memes.” And he added: “Thanks for the well wishes, it seems worse than it is!”
In the photo, taken at the Chancellery in Berlin, he is seen smiling, dressed in a suit but without a tie and with a black patch over his right eye – which is swollen; the matter is not serious, with visible scratches on the right side of his face.
The Social Democratic chancellor fell on Saturday doing his usual jogging routine in the city where he lives, Potsdam, located 30 kilometers southwest of Berlin. According to German media, he stumbled while running, was unable to rebalance himself and fell on his face. The bodyguards who accompanied him assisted him immediately.
After the publication of the tweet with the photo late yesterday morning, the ‘likes’ and responses with jokes and memes poured in on the social network, many about the field of piracy but also of a political nature. In one meme, Scholz carries a parrot on his shoulder with the face of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, and in another, his face is that of the pirate in the painting from the cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants.
Another shows actor Johnny Depp in his role as Captain Jack Sparrow with the line: “At last we have a pirate as chancellor!” Another netizen posted Scholz’s photo on a “Wanted. Alive or dead. Olaf, Captain of the Cabinet”, with reward.
Media and parties signed up for the joke. The public broadcaster of Berlin and Brandenburg reproduced the photo of the patch with the phrase: “You should see the FDP…”, in reference to the liberal FDP party, partners with the Greens of the tripartite coalition government headed by the Social Democrat Scholz. The latest polls are catastrophic for the three parties, but the one that comes out worst off is the Liberals.
The public broadcaster ZDF showed a period officer in a white wig and naval cap telling him: “You are without a doubt the worst federal chancellor I have ever heard of”, to which a patch-wearing Scholz replies: “But he has heard of my!”.
The Pirate Party of Germany, founded in 2006 and which defends direct democracy and the free flow of public data on the internet, tweeted the photo of Scholz with the triumphant phrase: “We are chancellor!”
Olaf Scholz, 65, had to cancel his schedule of events on Sunday, but this Monday he worked normally at the Chancellery in Berlin. “Given the circumstances, he is doing well; although he looks a bit battered ”, German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told the press.
In his profile on his party’s website, Olaf Scholz says that he hated sports at school, but later became fond of it by his wife, Britta Ernst. “Now I go running whenever I can,” says Scholz, who says that two or three times a week he tries to find time to jog, row or walk and that he also likes to go cycling.
