Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

POLITICS

German Chancellor sparks pirate memes with eye-patch photo

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday posted a photo of himself wearing an eyepatch after injuring his face while jogging, triggering a flood of pirate jokes online.

Published: 4 September 2023 14:11 CEST
German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wearing an eye patch due to a sports injury.
German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) wearing an eye patch due to a sports injury. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/Bundesregierung | Steffen Kugler

Scholz suffered minor injuries after falling while out running at the weekend, forcing him to cancel some appointments.

The chancellor posted a picture on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing him wearing a large black patch over his right eye, with red scrape marks visible around the edge.

“Thanks for the well wishes. It looks worse than it is!” he wrote under the picture on his official account.

“Excited to see the memes,” he added.

And there were memes aplenty, many comparing him to a buccaneer.

They ranged from one featuring an eyepatch-wearing cartoon pirate brandishing a cutlass, to others showing a pirate at a ship’s wheel, and Scholz wearing a hat with a skull and crossbones on it and holding a sword.

There were also many messages wishing him a speedy recovery, with his tweet racking up over 9,000 likes and more than 2,000 comments shortly after it was posted.

READ ALSO: Stranger hugs Germany’s Scholz in airport security breach

Despite the injury, Scholz — who has been a regular runner for several years — was in good form, his spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said.

He also planned to attend his scheduled appointments this week, including a tour of the IAA car show in Munich on Tuesday and a speech in parliament on Wednesday.

“He’s doing well under the circumstances,” Hebestreit told a regular press briefing. “He was in a good mood this morning, although he still looks a little battered.”

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

GERMANY AND RUSSIA

Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

Germany and the Czech Republic on Friday blamed Russia for a series of recent cyberattacks, prompting the European Union to warn Moscow of consequences over its "malicious behaviour in cyberspace".

Published: 4 May 2024 10:29 CEST
Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

The accusations come at a time of strained relations between Moscow and the West following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the European Union’s support for Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a newly concluded government investigation found that a cyberattack targeting members of the Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28.

APT28 “is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia”, Baerbock told reporters during a visit to Australia.

“In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyberattacks in countries around the world. Russia denies being behind such actions.

The hacking attack on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD party was made public last year. Hackers exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to compromise e-mail accounts, according to Berlin.

Berlin on Friday summoned the acting charge d’affaires of the Russian embassy over the incident.

The Russian embassy in Germany said its envoy “categorically rejected the accusations that Russian state structures were involved in the given incident… as unsubstantiated and groundless”.

Arms, aerospace targeted: Berlin 

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the cyber campaign was orchestrated by Russia’s military intelligence service GRU and began in 2022. It also targeted German companies in the armaments and aerospace sectors, she said.

Such cyberattacks are “a threat to our democracy, national security and our free societies”, she told a joint news conference in Prague with her Czech counterpart Vit Rakusan.

“We are calling on Russia again to stop these activities,” Faeser added.

Czech government officials said some of its state institutions had also been the target of cyberattacks blamed on APT28, again by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft Outlook in 2023.

Czech Interior Minister Rakusan said his country’s infrastructure had recently experienced “higher dozens” of such attacks.

“The Czech Republic is a target. In the long term, it has been perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy state,” he told reporters.

EU, NATO condemnation

The German and Czech findings triggered strong condemnation from the European Union.

“The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia’s continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

The EU would “make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia’s malicious behaviour in cyberspace”, he added.

State institutions, agencies and entities in other member states including in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden had been targeted by APT28 in the past, the statement added.

The latest accusations come a day after NATO expressed “deep concern” over Russia’s “hybrid actions” including disinformation, sabotage and cyber interference.

The row also comes as millions of Europeans prepare to go to the polls for the European Parliament elections in June, and concerns about foreign meddling are running high.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told AFP that “pointing a finger publicly at a specific attacker is an important tool to protect national interests”.

One of the most high-profile incidents so far blamed on Fancy Bear was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. It forced the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

In 2020, the EU imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the APT28 group over the incident.

SHOW COMMENTS