A headache for Scholz

The Story  

Germany’s defence minister has thrown in the towel after a little over a year in the job. On Monday, Christine Lambrecht officially confirmed rumours that she had been swirling over the weekend.

“The ongoing media focus on me as a person hardly allows for objective reporting and discussion about the servicemen and women of our armed forces,” she said in a statement. In order to allow the hard work of the armed forces to take centre stage, “I have decided to announce my resignation.”

Ministerial resignations are something of a rarity in German politics, but this news was far from surprising.

Lambrecht’s record after close to a year of war in Europe was a failure to make any progress on purchasing the weapons and munitions needed to rebuild the army, an inability to win respect among the troops, and a strange knack for silly PR gaffs.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was a video she posted to Instagram over New Year that showed her thanking people for the “interesting impres…