"i‘m torn," brita tells us. "i enjoy the new freedoms, but at the same time i‘m a bit scared.ral agreement which we had some time ago. small but voluble, a minority demanded angela merkel lifted restrictions. so, more significantly, did germany‘s regional leaders, like armin laschet, a leading candidate to replace her when she steps down next year. translation: we have the health problem of the pandemic, but there‘s other damage. children from disadvantaged backgrounds who couldn‘t go to school, sick people who didn‘t get treatment because the hospitals were reserved for covid, people in care homes got lonely. this is damage too, and it claimed lives. nothing, then, to do with raising his political profile? translation: the measures we had to decide are so important, a matter of life and death, you couldn‘t act on a tactical basis. katerina‘s not impressed, though the relaxations mean she‘s seen her family for the first time in weeks. "i‘m very sceptical, very sceptical," she says. "it‘s like tipping over a sack of potatoes." this country, praised worldwide for its initial suc