Merkel Calls Easter Shutdown a ‘Mistake’ in Rare Apology

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a rare public apology after she was forced to abandon a five-day hard lockdown over Easter just 33 hours after announcing it, throwing her government’s management of the pandemic further into disarray.

Merkel dropped the proposal, calling it a “mistake,” after a hastily-arranged video conference on Wednesday with the heads of the country’s 16 states. She defended what would have been one of Germany’s toughest steps since the start of the pandemic but said there wasn’t enough time to implement it properly.