German Chancellor Angela Merkel named Ursula von der Leyen as her new defence minister on Sunday night, a surprising choice that could vault the ambitious ally into the lead as the front runner to one day succeed the Chancellor.
Merkel, 59, will begin her third term today – three months after winning the September 22 election – now that her junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats, voted on Saturday to join her in a “grand coalition”.
Even though Merkel has an aversion to the unexpected, she pulled a rabbit out of her hat in picking the spirited von der Leyen to lead defence, one of the top jobs in her Cabinet with a €33 billion budget.
“Those who know her know that she has always had an interest in international issues alongside social policies,” Merkel told a news conference. “It’s an exciting job filled with challenges that I’m confident she’ll master very well.”
Merkel has no designated successor and has denied speculation she would step down midway through her next term. But the remarkable turn of events will revive all that if the 55-year-old von der Leyen is successful as Germany’s first woman defence minister.
“Those who know von der Leyen know she’s got the toughness needed for the difficult job,” wrote Bild am Sonntag columnist Michael Backhaus on Sunday. “Merkel showed a lot of courage picking von der Leyen, courage she lacked in the negotiations.”
Von der Leyen is a controversial figure in the conservative wing of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, in part for openly defying the chancellor on women’s rights as labour minister in a riveting battle that erupted five months before the election.
She forced Merkel to make concessions in her opposition to binding quotas for women on company boards by threatening to break ranks and back an opposition bill – seen as an act of betrayal in conservative circles because it would have embarrassed Merkel.
Von der Leyen only backed down at the last minute after she and fellow rebels extracted from the party a promise to include a quota in its election program – which was later incorporated in the coalition agreement.
Von der Leyen had aspirations to be foreign minister but it went to the SPD as did her current job.
A gynaecologist who served as family minister in the first “grand coalition” with the SPD from 2005 to 2009, von der Leyen reportedly turned down Merkel’s initial offer to lead the lowly Health Ministry, a risky gambit that paid off. On Saturday speculation in Berlin was first rampant that she would be interior minister before reports later emerged she would replace Thomas de Maiziere as defence minister. He was once seen as a successor to Merkel but fell out of favour over a procurement scandal that cost €680 million.