German defence minister Ursula von der Leyen has been put forward by European leaders as the candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as the President of the EU Commission, a powerful position. If she is approved by the EU Parliament (which is not yet certain) it would be a victory for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and a bad thing for Europe.
Von der Leyen attended the European School in Brussels, just like Boris Johnson. Like Boris, she’s the child of a European Commission official, but that’s where her similarities with the potential prime minister end. She wants a ‘United States of Europe’, a political union for the Eurozone and a ‘European army’, even if her own track record as defence minister ‘is regarded as a failure among friends and foes alike’. Rupert Scholz, who was defence minister under former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl thinks that the German army’s ‘condition is catastrophic’, something he calls ‘totally irresponsible’.
Are we then witnessing something
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