EXPRESS: GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel will not attend tomorrow's funeral for her fellow "Iron Lady", Baroness Thatcher, it was confirmed today.
Germany's government will instead be represented by foreign minister Guido Westerwelle.
Mrs Merkel has been described as the "Iron Lady of Europe" and "Iron Lady Lite" for her tough negotiating stance.
Embassy sources said she rarely attends such funerals overseas and that foreign minister Mr Westerwelle - who was in London last week for a G8 meeting - is the next most senior figure who would usually take up such an invitation to her government.
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl might have been a candidate to represent the state as he knew then PM Thatcher personally but he is too infirm to travel.
Downing Street yesterday insisted it was "not at all" concerned that relatively few heads of government from major countries have so far accepted the invitation to join mourners in London's St Paul's Cathedral. » | Alison Little | Monday, April 15, 2013
