The chancellor celebrates her 67th birthday on Saturday. Planned for her last cradle in the office: just a little celebration with friends and family (including Brother Marcus and Sister Irene).

But the flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate is likely to frustrate Angela Merkel. Instead of celebrations: crisis teams, private meetings!

One thing remains incomprehensible: why did the chancellor not appear immediately in the flood areas between Moselle and Sauerland?

When asked by BILD, the chancellery said: “Merkel did not want to allocate any resources,” but she will likely get an overview of the site in the next few days.

However: On the return trip from US President Joe Biden’s visit (78), Merkel could have easily stopped in the flood zone. The ability to show sympathy to victims, their relatives, thousands of volunteers, police and fire departments.

Its Airbus “Konrad Adenauer” service brought Merkel to Berlin yesterday, then back to his Cologne/Bonn site anyway.

Instead of using the helicopter ready to fly on the way from Willy Brandt Airport to the Chancellery, Merkel could have taken a sightseeing trip over the flooded area and inspected the situation from the air. The fact is that your “Super Puma” can fly about 900 kilometers – enough to return from North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate to Berlin.

After all: on Friday, when the chancellor returned to Berlin, she got an overview of the situation via video conference and took part in the crisis team switch in the Rhineland-Palatinate.

In any case, he remained open on Friday on whether and when Merkel would visit the flood areas. The Cabinet intends to adopt an emergency aid program next week.

To this end, the chancellor had already contacted Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (72, CSU) and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Schulz (63, SPD) before hastily departing from Washington.