Status: 02.09.2022 2:29 p.m
The question of who will represent Germany at Mikhail Gorbachev’s funeral in Moscow on Saturday has been clarified. The chargé d’affaires of the German embassy will be sent, the Foreign Office announced.
At the funeral of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on Saturday, Germany will be represented by the charge d’affaires of the German embassy in Moscow. This was announced by a spokesman for the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. Ambassador Géza Andreas von Geyr could not take part in the ceremony himself because of a corona disease. That’s why his official representative is coming.
Appreciation in the Bundestag
Chancellor Olaf Scholz had ruled out his participation in the funeral yesterday. “There is no invitation to the funeral, so the question doesn’t even arise,” the SPD politician told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
However, he will take part in the Bundestag commemoration event next week, said Scholz as part of his “Chancellor Talks” series of talks with 150 citizens. According to Parliament, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas will pay tribute to the deceased on Wednesday before the start of the budget debate. There will be a minute’s silence in the plenary hall in honor of the deceased. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be present in the grandstand.
Mourning flags to federal authorities
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser ordered the funeral flags to be displayed by the highest federal authorities in Berlin and Bonn on the occasion of the funeral ceremonies on Saturday. The flags on the Reichstag building are also to be flown at half-mast on Wednesday.
Gorbachev died in Moscow on Tuesday at the age of 91. The former head of state and Nobel Peace Prize winner is considered one of the fathers of German unity and a pioneer for the end of the Cold War.