The current Secretary General, the Social Democrat former Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, is due to step down in September. And the current Danish prime minister is on point to succeed him.
NATO It is on its way to having a woman at its controls for the first time in its history. The current secretary general, former Norwegian Social Democrat Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, is due to leave office in September after seeing how it stretched out last year.
The annual NATO summit in Vilnius in early July should serve to clarify who will succeed Stoltenberg, but all lights are on about another Nordic Social Democratic Prime Minister, the Danish Mette Frederiksen.
The still head of the government of her country meets most of the unofficial requirements to succeed Stoltenberg in the office at NATO headquarters in Evere, just outside Brussels.
Denmark is a profoundly Atlanticist country, Frederiksen has a good relationship with most of the heads of government of the Member States, she is a woman (NATO has long wanted a woman in command) and meets the basic requirements, such as knowledge of languages.
Good relations
She is also head of government (other names that sound are “only” ministers), her country is neither one of the smallest partners nor one of the largest. Denmark has not hesitated to support Ukraine and send weons. Placed in the most liberal wing of the European Social Democratshis figure is not annoying for liberal governments like the French and the Dutch and is from the social democratic family like the German and the Spanish.
frederiksen must still pass the White House exam. President Joe Biden invited her to Washington in June and the invitation is seen by the Danish press as practically a job interview. Without the proval of the tenant of the Oval Office, there is no candidacy that progresses.
Atlantic sources assure that the Danish meets most of the requirements and that if NATO wants a woman in command, she is one of the few in exercise.
Frederiksen also has cons because no one is perfect. The first is that a Dane, one of his predecessors as Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, He was already Secretary General of NATO between 2009 and 2014.
If we add to that that the current one is Norwegian, the Atlantic Alliance would be in the hands of Scandinavian politicians for almost two decades. It seems a minor stumbling block if the countries of the east or south of the continent do not have a more powerful candidate.
little competition
In the east, the name of the former European Commissioner and former Lithuanian President has peared a few times Dahlia Grybauskaite. But in Western citals you don’t want to place someone from one of the most bellicose countries against Russia. They think it would be fanning the bonfire. In France, Italy, Spain, Portugal or Greece there is no woman ruling nor has there ever been and there does not seem to be any female minister with interest.
Former British Prime Minister Theresa May peared a few times in the lists of names but does not seem to show any more interest either. The online newsper Politico also talks about Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace and even Spanish President Pedro Sanchez.
The second important con that Frederiksen drags is that his country is far from fulfilling the political commitment of the NATO member states (more than half do not comply) to spend at least 2% of GDP on Defense. But to correct it, this same Tuesday his government announced that by the end of this decade it will have tripled its military spending to go from the current 1.38% to more than 3.5% of GDP.
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Source: Clarin
