Chancellor Scholz Gets Some German Schadenfreude After Accident

(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Olaf Scholz was the subject of some German Schadenfreude Monday after a weekend jogging accident.

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In a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Scholz showed a picture of himself wearing an eye patch to cover up what appeared to be bruising and scratches to the area around his right eye. The post sparked a wave of social media memes and provided some light-hearted relief for the leader of Europe’s largest economy.

“The laugh is always on the loser... Can’t wait to see the memes. Thanks for the good wishes, looks worse than it is!” Scholz wrote in the post Monday.

As predicted by the chancellor, his misfortune was quickly picked up on social media where some users took aim at the pirate-like look of the otherwise rather calm and sober politician. Some photo-shopped a parrot onto the shoulder of the chancellor while others added him to pictures of famous pirate characters, telling viewers to choose their fighter.

Scholz canceled a trip to Hesse on Sunday after sustaining the injury during a jogging accident on Saturday, according to a government spokeswoman. The chancellor, who is 65, was due to hold a town hall meeting with citizens and take part in a campaign event for his Social Democratic Party near Frankfurt ahead of the Hesse regional election in October.

By Monday, Scholz was back joining an SPD parliamentary group meeting and a summer party of a magazine in Berlin. He plans to visit the IAA car show in Munich on Tuesday and give a speech to lawmakers in the lower house of parliament on Wednesday. The chancellor is also due to attend the Group of 20 leaders summit in New Delhi next weekend.

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