Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of the German Christian Democrats, has been named as the country’s new defence minister, just as the previous holder of the post Ursula von der Leyen was elected to be the European Commission’s first female president.
The move is hugely risky for Kramp-Karrenbauer, universally known as AKK, who succeeded Angela Merkel as leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in December and is in pole position to replace her as chancellor at the end of her fourth and final term.
The defence ministry has often turned out to be a poisoned chalice for politicians. In Berlin it is often described as the “ejector seat”: Germany has had 18 defence ministers since the second world war, and only one of them, Helmut Schmidt, went on to become chancellor.
Via Financial Times
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