The latest news is that Condoleezza Rice may soon be drinking Weizenbier with her German counterpart. Edmund Stoiber has signaled that he would leave Munich for Berlin as Germany’s next foreign minister:
Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper said he had given a "personal undertaking" to Angela Merkel, the conservative leader, that he would serve in her government if she defeats the Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder. Opinion polls predict that Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats are on course to win an absolute majority in the election.
This is interesting in several respects. First, Stoiber is much more of a nationalist than Fischer, and is likely to be an irritant to Tony Blair as Blair attempts to consolidate his position as de facto leader of the EU. Also, Stoiber is a fierce opponent of Turkey’s joining the EU, which will not endear him to President Bush. For Angela Merkel, Stoiber’s move is a positive development, as the folks over at Walhblog05 point out:
Wenn da was dran ist, kann Merkel aufatmen: Ein Stoiber, der in die Regierung eingebunden ist, dürfte wesentlich pflegeleichter sein als ein starker Landesfürst im fernen München (den manche CDU-Mitglieder darüber hinaus noch immer für die bessere Antwort auf die K-Frage halten).
What about the FDP, who had all but reserved this post for Wolfgang Gerhard?
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Well, Stoiber knows how to pander to his conservative base, that’s for sure. But Bavaria has a lot of experience with regional cooperations within Europe, so he does have some competence in that field.
I’m still wondering how much of an issue Turkish EU membership will become in the transatlantic relations between the USA and Germany. My guess is that the Bush administration will be glad enough that Schröder is gone to ignore this, and that the new conservative German government will stick to low-level sabotage of the process instead of any big vetoes…
Assuming that there is a black-yellow coalition, would the FDP really allow Stoiber to get in over Gerhardt? They might not have much of a choice, I suppose.
I think Stoiber is a smart guy, but the world would be much better off with Fischer. This may be naive, but he is one of the only politicians I feel like I can trust.
Well, it could be worse. It could be Koch instead of Stoiber…