Berlin, Aug 29 (UNI) German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged her country's citizens to prepare for tough times in the coming months.
She was speaking at her traditional summer press conference, here on Friday.
"One has to expect that some things will be even more difficult in the coming months than in the summer," Xinhua quoted Merkel as saying.
Merkel stressed that everything had to be done to ensure that children would not become the losers of the COVID-19 pandemic. Education was the most important and "schools must not leave anyone behind."
At the same time, the German government was aiming to "keep economic life going or get it going again" as much as possible, Merkel said. However, the situation remained serious.
Particularly during the coronavirus crisis, sustainability and innovative power had to be strengthened, for example, by promoting climate-friendly technologies and digitization as well as laying the foundation for the next chapter of the country's energy transition, according to Merkel.
The third priority of the government's work in the pandemic was to preserve "social cohesion" as much as possible. Merkel acknowledged that the COVID-19 crisis "burdens the population very unequally."
The pandemic had made some groups of the population in Germany particularly vulnerable, added Merkel. She named elderly people and those in need of care and their relatives, families with children in cramped living conditions, the students who lose their part-time jobs, job seekers, small businesses as well as artists.
"We must pay special attention to all of them," stressed Merkel.
UNI XC GK 0758