The United States proposed German Ursula von der Leyen as Stolteneberg’s successor.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz opposed the appointment of the current President of the European Commission (EU “government”) Ursula von der Leyen as the new Secretary General of NATO. All allegedly because of her “too critical attitude towards Russia,” writes the German newspaper Welt, citing high-ranking EU officials.
According to sources, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously proposed to US President Joe Biden the candidacy of Ursula von der Leyen to become the next NATO Secretary General. Biden then floated the idea to Scholz, with whom he met last week.
According to sources, Scholz allegedly responded that the position of NATO secretary general was too important to be filled by a “Christian Democrat from Germany,” that is, a conservative. It is also stated that Scholz allegedly considers von der Leyen’s “overly critical attitude towards Russia” a disadvantage.
In addition, Welt sources claim that NATO countries really wanted the next Secretary General to be a woman, but they never found a good candidate. Thus, the candidacy of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was rejected due to the fact that she “performed unconvincingly” during her visit to the United States last summer. The candidacy of Estonian Prime Minister Kai Kallas was also rejected, allegedly “due to an overly critical position towards Russia.”
According to sources, the next Secretary General of NATO will still be appointed Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, who suits the majority of the Alliance countries.
Change of NATO Secretary General
As wrote, the current NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was appointed to the post in October 2014. In theory, the term of office of the Secretary General is 4 years with the possibility of extension. Stoltenberg was supposed to resign after his second term, but due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, his powers were extended until October 2024
Discussions have been ongoing in NATO for some time regarding who should become Stoltenberg’s successor. For a long time it was believed that this should be a representative of NATO’s eastern flank, since this region has so far not had sufficient influence in the alliance. However, no worthy candidate was found.
