Martin Schulz’s return to German politics will make Brexit more bitter

Shock news! Hold the (virtual) front page! Martin Schulz, arch bogeyman of every British Brexiteer – and even a few Remainers – is leaving the EU. No, Schulz hasn’t renounced his support for ‘ever closer’ European Union. Rather, he’s stepping down as President of the European Parliament to stand as an MP for the SPD, Germany’s Social Democrats. Why should British voters care? Because Schulz has been widely tipped as a potential leader of the SPD, the only party with a real chance of beating Angela Merkel’s CDU in next year’s Bundestag elections. And the winner of that election will steer EU policy throughout the Brexit process, and beyond.

Second only to Jean-Claude Juncker, Schulz is the Eurocrat Eurosceptics love to loathe. Yet ironically, his robust defence of the EU’s ‘four freedoms’ (goods, services, capital and people) puts him on the same side of the argument as his fiercest British foes.