Merkel Says Painful That East Germans Think They Are 'Second-Rate Citizens'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that it hurt that she had failed to ensure equal treatment for the populations of eastern and western parts of Germany 30 years after reunification

BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2021) German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that it hurt that she had failed to ensure equal treatment for the populations of eastern and western parts of Germany 30 years after reunification.

"Yes, of course," Merkel responded to a journalist when asked if she felt hurt that those from eastern Germany still felt like "second-rate citizens."

At the same time, she warned that poll results should be carefully analyzed before drawing conclusions.

"People should carefully consider the topic. There are many polls ... Many people think that their life achievements, especially in the [former] DDR, did not receive due respect and they would like to get more attention now. It is painful that so many years after the German reunification, this process turned out to be more complicated than it seemed at the beginning," Merkel noted.

A major poll conducted in 2019 by the Policy Matters research center commissioned by the Zeit newspaper showed that the majority of Germans living in eastern Germany were dissatisfied with their representation and position in the country. The sentiment was shared by around 70% of the respondents, who believed their opinion on a number of issues was rarely taken into account by German politicians. More than 50% of eastern Germans expressed dissatisfaction with how democracy works in the country, and 58% said they did not feel sufficiently protected from the state's arbitrariness.