At first glance, it looks like an ordinary hand of cards, until you look closer. All the cards are the same: five Queen of Hearts. In a deck, there are no five queens, let alone five Queen of Hearts.
What makes the Queen of Hearts special here is that it’s Merkel, the first female Chancellor of Germany, who governed from 2005 to 2021 and was elected Chancellor four times—not five. So the fifth card doesn’t quite fit. However, hearts as a symbol does. She was, and still is, very popular, both domestically and internationally. Merkel led Germany and Europe through the financial crisis, the refugee crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic with steady, calm German leadership. Germany is back on the map, once again confident in playing a role in international politics.