"I like". “I am satisfied, she went well”. The first comment is by Angela Merkel, the second by Matteo Renzi. The German chancellor was in Milan yesterday to visit the Expo and her premier welcomed her together with his wife Agnese. Angela Merkel, in turn, was accompanied by her husband Joachim Sauer. The private visit began without making any statements to the press. The program included three stops: one at Padiglione Zero, then at the German pavilion and finally at Palazzo Italia. Where the dinner based on paccheri with prawns and steamed croaker will be held.
The purpose of Merkel's visit, which extends the list of heads of state and government who came to Milan to visit Expo (from Hollande to Cameron, from Vladimir Putin to Michele Obama), was not to address thorny issues such as the Greek situation, the flexibility on public finances or the reforms that the government will carry out in September. Merkel was rather interested in the site and asked what will happen to the spaces occupied by Expo when the exhibition ends on October 31st.
The visit ended around 9, half an hour late on schedule. “She seemed satisfied to me” commented Expo commissioner Giuseppe Sala. The chancellor should have come on Tuesday but the approaching vote in the Bundestag on Greece's third bailout suggested bringing it forward by one day.
At the German pavilion the four signed the guest book. Then a huge crowd to reach Piazzetta Alto Adige first, then Palazzo Italia. Here, between the visit, the signing of the Milan Charter and dinner, Merkel and Renzi spent more than two hours. At the exit, German politics was also able to admire the Tree of Life, the icon of the Italian Pavilion, illuminated with a special show on the notes of Verdi's toast «Libiamo, né felici calici» from Traviata. She and she then got into the car smiling, greeted by Renzi and his wife who left Expo shortly after.
