For Europe’s relevance, Merkel should be next EU council president – Sigmar Gabriel

Former German Social Democrat leader Sigmar Gabriel is in favor of Chancellor Angela Merkel becoming the next European Council president, arguing she would be “the best for this task.”

“Europe will have to reinvent itself if it wants to survive and for that Europe needs leadership,” Gabriel, a former foreign affairs minister, wrote in an op-ed for Handelsblatt.

Gabriel wrote that the “axes of power have shifted from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Not G7 or G8 or even G20 determine the rules of the new world order, but rather G2: the U.S. and China.”

“If Europe wants to play a role and at least make G3 out of it, it must play a role as a global actor. Politically, we Europeans find ourselves in the middle of a competition between liberal democracies and authoritarian offerings in the world. In order to survive this competition, Europe must offer its best and Angela Merkel is the best for this task.”

Handelsblatt / POLITICO