In Sunday’s summer interview with ZDF television, Kramp-Karrenbauer said the SPD would be ill-advised to vote in the European Parliament against appointing Ursula von der Leyen as head of the European Commission. On Monday, European leaders nominated the German defense minister to head the bloc’s executive after failing to agree on any of the “Spitzenkandidat” nominees put forward by pan-European parties in European Parliament elections. Under the ‘Spitzenkandidat’ principle, the lead candidate of the party with the most seats has a claim on the European Commission presidency. Kramp-Karrenbauer refused to rule that out, saying she was open to discussing further commitments once Germany’s current mandate in the coalition ends in October. The German airforce contributes reconaissance jets and air refueling tankers based in Jordan to the coalition against IS and has deployed staff to a training mission in Iraq.

Source: National Post July 07, 2019 16:30 UTC