June 16, 2026, 2:02 p.mJune 16, 2026, 2:10 p.m
Affectionate humor or ironic jab? When welcoming Germany’s Prime Minister Friedrich Merz and his wife Charlotte to the G7 summit in Évian, the music played by host France in particular caused amusement.
The song “Lieblingsmensch” by Namika was recorded on President Emmanuel Macron’s social media channels.
The other heads of state and government also received a song related to their respective country. There were various welcoming songs for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria, Mark Carney and his wife Diana Fox and Italy’s head of state Giorgia Meloni. Check out the greetings in the video:
While the German Chancellor and his wife ran up to Macron and his wife Brigitte and were greeted, lines of text like “Hello, favorite person, a huge compliment for knowing me so well” could be heard. There are very different opinions in the comments on the post as to whether this should be understood as an expression of German-French friendship or rather with a wink.
In the morning, before a working session of the G7 group on the situation in Ukraine, Merz surprised US President Donald Trump with a birthday present in keeping with the World Cup: Merz presented him with a jersey in the colors of the German national football team. Player name: Trump, number: 47. The Republican is the 47th President of the United States, where the World Cup is currently being held – as well as in Canada and Mexico. On Sunday he celebrated his 80th birthday. (sda/dpa)