President of the European Commission and former German Defense Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, she is not a candidate for the new Secretary General of NATOhe assured Representative of the Commission at the German Agency.

He commented on the article British tabloid The Sun yesterday on Friday, the content of which he called “a baseless scenario”.

The newspaper reported that Ms von der Leyen has been nominated by some European governments to replace Jens Stoltenberg, citing an unnamed diplomatic source.

However, the same publication, citing British government sources, which it also did not name, said that London would likely veto her candidacy, citing her – in the opinion of her critics – negative record when she led the German army. .

Stoltenberg is expected to step down as NATO leader in October. The term of office of the 63-year-old Norwegian has been extended three times, most recently until 30 September. For the last nearly nine years he has been NATO Secretary General.

There has been a lot of talk lately about a new extension of the powers of the current NATO Secretary General, at the height of the war in Ukraine. However, diplomats objected that this would give the impression that the member states of the military alliance could not agree on who would be his successor.

The British government has reportedly offered the current Conservative Defense Secretary, Ben Wallace, to take over the post.

According to The Sun, among the candidates who are being talked about are also candidates for Estonian Prime Minister Kaji Kalas and Canadian Finance Minister Kristia Freeland, whose mother is Ukrainian.

According to other sources cited recently by the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is considered one of the leading candidates.

with information from DPA, Reuters, APE-MPE