Blazers out, nail varnish in: as Merkel steps down, so does star doppelganger

Ursula Wanecki's second life as an impersonator started almost by accident. Sixteen years later, she is hanging up the blazers

Ursula Wanecki has a dream, which is to finally meet Angela Merkel and swap tips with her about how to make Silesian plum cake. I know for a fact she likes to make it, with a crumble topping. I imagine us sitting in her garden, having a coffee and eating the cake - with a crunchy crumble - away from the public eye."

She has been told by people in the know", she says, that her idea is not so far-fetched. Merkel knows about Wanecki, who has been impersonating her for almost as long as she has been chancellor, and has even sent her a signed book, which Wanecki takes to be tacit approval of her unconventional role.