Never mind the euro crisis or the war in Syria — what seems to have generated most comment among Germans who tuned in to a live TV debate between Angela Merkel and her election rival Peer Steinbrueck is the German chancellor’s necklace.
The twisty necklace, made of long metal beads in red, yellow and black of the German flag, now has its own Twitter account — with the handle @schlandkette — and that has attracted more than 6,300 followers since Sunday evening’s duel.
“And the winner is: the Germany necklace,” was one tongue-in-cheek Twitter verdict on Monday morning.
Another tweet read: “Take away from the TV duel: the necklace received more attention than Mr Steinbrueck and Ms Merkel’s answers. Sad...”
During their television debate, the only one of the election campaign, Ms Merkel and Mr Steinbrueck clashed over the euro, tax policy, United States’ spying and other issues, but delivered few surprises.
An estimated 15 million Germans watched the duel.