Germany’s Scholz shares picture with eyepatch after jogging incident

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz shared an image of himself wearing a black eyepatch on Monday on social media, the result of a jogging accident over the weekend.

“I look forward to the memes,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Thanks for the well wishes, looks worse than it is!” he added.

The 65-year-old chancellor’s post was met with a number of reactions, as he predicted, going from well wishes to memes – most of which feature Scholz as a pirate.

Scholz reportedly fell while jogging in his hometown of Potsdam, 28km southwest of Berlin, on Saturday, sustaining bruises to the face but no serious injury. 

Though the chancellor minimised the impact of the fall on his health on X, the incident forced him to cancel some appointments over the weekend, according to the government.

“He was in quite a good mood this morning, but still looks a bit battered,” his spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin on Monday, adding that Scholz was doing well considering the circumstances. 

Hebestreit added that the photo was published “so that everyone can get used to how he will look in the next week or two.”