Angela Merkel’s foreign policy proposals should worry Brexiteers

With the German election a fortnight away, and Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union enjoying a commanding lead, you might suppose the German Chancellor would be tempted to play safe and keep her head down. However as Theresa May has shown, that’s a risky strategy for an incumbent. Far better to come out fighting, take the battle to your opponents – and choose the ground upon which you wish to fight. Merkel’s favourite battleground has always been foreign policy, and with her conservative CDU on course for a resounding victory, yesterday’s interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung gives the clearest outline so far of what her priorities will be when she returns for a fourth term as Chancellor in two weeks’ time.

Yesterday Russia was in her sights, specifically Russia’s invasion of Crimea. Isn’t that old news? Not for Merkel. Other politicians may have accepted the Russian occupation as a regrettable reality (Christian Lindner, the leader of Germany’s Free Democrats, called it ‘provisionally permanent’) but for Merkel it’s unfinished business.