Jean-Claude Juncker admits he ‘will miss Merkel’ but reveals Chancellor ‘annoyed’ him

Mr Juncker, who was the former EU Commission President between 2014 and 2019, claimed the now former Chancellor had been great for Europe. With the EU facing issues with member states such as Poland and Hungary, the former Brussels official bemoaned the loss of Ms Merkel.

In an interview with Welt, Mr Juncker said: “I will miss her.

“Because she has this not very common quality in Europe of listening to everyone equally.

“She paid equal attention to large and small and medium-sized Member States.

“And that distinguished her that she did not make any fuss about her own person, that she did not say: ‘As Chancellor of the Republic I would like this and that’.

“No, she always joined the circle.”

While he did admit the former Chancellor would be a loss for the EU, Mr Juncker claimed he sometimes became annoyed with Ms Merkel at times.

Indeed, Mr Juncker paid particular reference to the migration crisis of 2015.

Mr Juncker also served as the Prime Minister for Luxembourg for 18 years, said: “I don’t blame her for what went wrong in Europe.

“That was not her inability, but the inability of everyone.

JUST IN: French say EU is ‘more fragile’ and Covid was handled ‘badly’ – POLL

Ms Merkel’s successor, Olaf Schulz will officially take over as Chancellor next week.

Ms Merkel is stepping down after 16 years in office but as she departed her role, further measures were introduced to curb Germany’s soaring Covid cases.

Ahead of her departure, Ms Merkel claimed vaccinations could become mandatory from February next year.

Germany has also introduced a lockdown for those who are unvaccinated.

She said: “We have understood that the situation is very serious and that we want to take further measures in addition to those already taken.

“To do this, the fourth wave must be broken, and this has not yet been achieved.”

Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg.