SPD insists German coalition Government won’t split over Ursula von der Leyen nomination

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition will not collapse over European Union leaders’ choice of Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen to head the European Commission,

Katarina Barley, who led the German SPD’s campaign for elections to the European Parliament in May, told the broadcaster Deutschlandfunk she did not expect European lawmakers from her left-leaning party to back von der Leyen, a member of Merkel’s conservative CDU party, in a confirmation vote.

Von der Leyen, Germany’s defence minister and a Merkel ally, needs to be confirmed in her new job by an absolute majority of EU lawmakers, and may hit resistance in an assembly aggrieved that EU leaders ignored the lead candidates from the main parliamentary blocs in their horse-trading over top posts.

Von der Leyen’s nomination has again strained the coalition in Berlin, a loveless alliance between Merkel’s conservatives and the SPD that has already come close to collapsing at least twice.

But Barley, who was German justice minister until last month, told Deutschlandfunk: “The coalition in Berlin won’t fail over this.”

Via Reuters