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ANGELA MERKEL

Merkel seeks to have German head the European Commission

German Chancellor Angel Merkel wants a compatriot as the next president of the European Commission, local media reported Wednesday, apparently backing away from a demand that the European Central Bank installs a German as head.

Published: 23 August 2018 10:03 CEST

Merkel seeks to have German head the European Commission

Merkel in 2015 with economy minister Peter Altmeier, one of the potential German contenders for the European Commission post. Photo: DPA

German Chancellor Angel Merkel wants a compatriot as the next president of the European Commission, local media reported Wednesday, apparently backing away from a demand that the European Central Bank installs a German as head.

“The highest priority for Merkel is no longer the ECB but rather the Commission,” reported the business daily Handelsblatt.

The paper said Germany's leader views the head of the Commission as more politically relevant than the same role within the ECB.

Germany's candidate for the central bank role is the current head of Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, and it is thought he has damaged his chances of the top job with his repeated criticism of the ECB.

He has been an outspoken critic of current ECB chief Mario Draghi's handling of economic crises in southern, poorer European states to the detriment of eurozone powerhouse Germany.

Several key posts within EU institutions will turn over in 2019, including the position of Commission president, currently held by Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Junker.

A German has not yet been president of the European Commission, which has only existed in its current form since 2009.

However, during the commission's early stages as the nine-member Commission of the European Economic Community between 1958 and 1967, its president was Walter Hallstein of former West Germany.

Succession gossip has increased in recent weeks, with EU Brexit negotiator
Michel Barnier's name often mentioned.

Handelsblatt reported that Berlin is considering several officials to nominate for the post, including economy minister Peter Altmaier and defence minister Ursula von der Leyen.

Weidmann, a longtime sceptic of the ECB's tactic of ultra-low interest rates and massive bond purchases, said in March the bank must brace itself for a new downturn in a currently booming eurozone.

Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel briefly closes her eyes and smiles at a 2018 press conference in Berlin.

Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel briefly closes her eyes at a 2018 press conference in Berlin. Aside from plans to take "a little nap" after retiring this week, she hasn't given much away about what she might do next. Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP

The veteran chancellor has been tight-lipped about what she will do after handing over the reins to her successor Olaf Scholz on December 8th.

During her four terms in office, 67-year-old Merkel was often described as the most powerful woman in the world — but she hinted recently that she will not miss being in charge.

“I will understand very quickly that all this is now someone else’s responsibility. And I think I’m going to like that situation a lot,” she said during a trip to Washington this summer.

Famous for her stamina and her ability to remain fresh after all-night meetings, Merkel once said she can store sleep like a camel stores water.

But when asked about her retirement in Washington, she replied: “Maybe I’ll try to read something, then my eyes will start to close because I’m tired, so I’ll take a little nap, and then we’ll see where I show up.”

READ ALSO: ‘Eternal’ chancellor: Germany’s Merkel to hand over power
READ ALSO: The Merkel-Raute: How a hand gesture became a brand

‘See what happens’
First elected as an MP in 1990, just after German reunification, Merkel recently suggested she had never had time to stop and reflect on what else she might like to do.

“I have never had a normal working day and… I have naturally stopped asking myself what interests me most outside politics,” she told an audience during a joint interview with Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

“As I have reached the age of 67, I don’t have an infinite amount of time left. This means that I want to think carefully about what I want to do in the next phase of my life,” she said.

“Do I want to write, do I want to speak, do I want to go hiking, do I want to stay at home, do I want to see the world? I’ve decided to just do nothing to begin with and see what happens.”

Merkel’s predecessors have not stayed quiet for long. Helmut Schmidt, who left the chancellery in 1982, became co-editor of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit and a popular commentator on political life.

Helmut Kohl set up his own consultancy firm and Gerhard Schroeder became a lobbyist, taking a controversial position as chairman of the board of the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

German writer David Safier has imagined a more eccentric future for Merkel, penning a crime novel called Miss Merkel: Mord in der Uckermark that sees her tempted out of retirement to investigate a mysterious murder.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel forms her trademark hand gesture, the so-called “Merkel-Raute” (known in English as the Merkel rhombus, Merkel diamond or Triangle of Power). (Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP)

Planting vegetables
Merkel may wish to spend more time with her husband Joachim Sauer in Hohenwalde, near Templin in the former East Germany where she grew up, and where she has a holiday home that she retreats to when she’s weary.

Among the leisure activities she may undertake there is vegetable, and especially, potato planting, something that she once told Bunte magazine in an interview in 2013 that she enjoyed doing.

She is also known to be a fan of the volcanic island of D’Ischia, especially the remote seaside village of Sant’Angelo.

Merkel was captured on a smartphone video this week browsing the footwear in a Berlin sportswear store, leading to speculation that she may be planning something active.

Or the former scientist could embark on a speaking tour of the countless universities from Seoul to Tel Aviv that have awarded her honorary doctorates.

Merkel is set to receive a monthly pension of around 15,000 euros ($16,900) in her retirement, according to a calculation by the German Taxpayers’ Association.

But she has never been one for lavish spending, living in a fourth-floor apartment in Berlin and often doing her own grocery shopping.

In 2014, she even took Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to her favourite supermarket in Berlin after a bilateral meeting.

So perhaps she will simply spend some quiet nights in sipping her beloved white wine and whipping up the dish she once declared as her favourite, a “really good potato soup”.

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