Laudatory speech by Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, for Angela Merkel at the award ceremony for the North Rhine-Westphalia State Prize on 16 May 2023

Cologne, 16 May 2023

Dear Madam Chancellor, dear Angela,

Dear Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Mr Wüst,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a privilege to be here today to give this speech in recognition of you, dear Angela, as you receive North Rhine-Westphalia’s highest honour, the State Prize.

We are on the banks of the Rhine in the wonderful city of Cologne, the birthplace of Konrad Adenauer, once the city’s Lord Mayor and later Germany’s first Chancellor. And I know that the symbolism of this place will not be lost on you.

In important ways, the contours of your lives have overlapped. You followed in his footsteps some 40 years later, becoming the first female Chancellor of Germany. Just recently, you were awarded the Grand Cross 1st class, special issue, of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany….