The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has fractured her pelvis during a skiing holiday in Switzerland, forcing her to cancel several meetings and trips scheduled over the next three weeks, the Guardian reports.
Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said on Monday the chancellor had fallen while cross-country skiing in Engadin near St Moritz in the Swiss Alps, suffering severe bruising and a "partial fracture of the left interior pelvic ring".
Seibert told reporters Merkel would need to cancel a number of official appointments but was planning to attend Wednesday's cabinet meeting in person. The meeting is the first gathering of all ministers in the new "grand coalition" cabinet made up of Merkel's Christian Democratic party and the Social Democratic party.
Merkel had originally planned to visit Poland this Wednesday and receive the new prime minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel on Thursday this week. Both appointments have been cancelled, as well as a meeting with the president of the German employers' association on Friday.
The Guardian
