Pandemic made my last year in office the hardest, says emotional Merkel

ATTENTION EDITORS ? PICTURE EMBARGOED TO 2301 GMT, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 30, 2020 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel poses for photographs after the television recording of her annual New Year's speech at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany December 30, 2020. Picture taken December 30, 2020. Markus Schreiber/Pool via REUTERS. NO ONLINE USE

BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel said in her last New Year's address to the nation as German chancellor that 2020 was by far the most difficult of her 15-year leadership, yet the start of vaccinations against COVID-19 made 2021 a year of hope.

In a rare show of emotion, Merkel, who steered Germany and the European Union through the 2008 financial crisis, the Greek debt crisis a year later and the migrant crisis five years ago, condemned a protest movement opposed to lockdowns and said she would get vaccinated when the shot is widely available.