According to both his own admissions and the views of his detractors, Jean-Claude Juncker has, from the very beginning, been - both personally as well as politically - Germany's close ally. "I have always felt particularly close to Germany - since my earliest youth," he said in November 2013. "That has remained so, and even, in fact, grown stronger." Juncker traces this affinity back to the fact that his father, who served in the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War, had raised him to be "pro-German." That had been "one of his life accomplishments." "Not everyone could achieve that after the Second World War."[1] Politically, the EU Commission's president-elect is considered to have been former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's protégé. In the 1980s, the Prime Minister of Luxemburg, Jacques Santer, "introduced" his employee, Juncker, "to European politics," according to a critical retrospection on his political biography. Kohl then transformed him "into a European political authority." "I owe my influence in Europe to him," Juncker admitted in October 2012.[2] Already in 1988 - at the unusually early age of 33 - Juncker was awarded Germany's "Federal Cross of Merit". "You have more than lived up to the hopes placed in you in 1988," praised Chancellor Angela Merkel, November 8, 2013, as she awarded him the second highest national award - the "Grand Cross of the Order of Merit".
RăspundețiȘtergereParticularly Close to Germany
Kohl's Protégé
According to both his own admissions and the views of his detractors, Jean-Claude Juncker has, from the very beginning, been - both personally as well as politically - Germany's close ally. "I have always felt particularly close to Germany - since my earliest youth," he said in November 2013. "That has remained so, and even, in fact, grown stronger." Juncker traces this affinity back to the fact that his father, who served in the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War, had raised him to be "pro-German." That had been "one of his life accomplishments." "Not everyone could achieve that after the Second World War."[1] Politically, the EU Commission's president-elect is considered to have been former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's protégé. In the 1980s, the Prime Minister of Luxemburg, Jacques Santer, "introduced" his employee, Juncker, "to European politics," according to a critical retrospection on his political biography. Kohl then transformed him "into a European political authority." "I owe my influence in Europe to him," Juncker admitted in October 2012.[2] Already in 1988 - at the unusually early age of 33 - Juncker was awarded Germany's "Federal Cross of Merit". "You have more than lived up to the hopes placed in you in 1988," praised Chancellor Angela Merkel, November 8, 2013, as she awarded him the second highest national award - the "Grand Cross of the Order of Merit".
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