International media have recently been speculating as to who will take over the job as NATO’s Secretary General when Jens Stoltenberg’s term expires on 30 September.
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sànchez and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are among the top European leaders who have been identified as current candidates.
Also Finland’s recently resigned Prime Minister Sanna Marin (37) is mentioned as a hot candidate to take over the NATO job. Marin will become the first female NATO top commander if the election falls to her – and many believe the time has come for just that.
However, experts are doubtful that Marin will become Stoltenberg’s heir.
Marin is generally well liked and well regarded. Her work experience as head of government is put into the pot as an argument for her ability to work out compromises between some of the strongest leaders in the world, says a review from the Swedish news agency TT.
– She is great, but Finland is too new to NATO, says Edward Lucas of the American think tank Center for European Policy Analysis to the Finnish major newspaper Iltalethi.
Researcher at the University of Helsinki, Timo Miettinen, also considers it unlikely that the 37-year-old will become NATO’s next secretary-general. He cites the same reason: Finland has not been a member of the defense alliance long enough.
In addition, there is a question of whether the Nordic countries should be accommodated with the third NATO Secretary General in a row, as Stoltenberg’s predecessor was Denmark’s former Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. It is therefore not inconceivable that the election this time falls on a person who does not have such a close connection to the Nordics, they believe.
