Will she back her loyal follower? ANGELA MERKEL may be personally popular in Germany and favoured to remain chancellor after the parliamentary election in September. But she and her centre-right political camp are starting to face a different problem. No obvious talent is coming up behind her from which to draw a potential successor. One by one, her hopefuls have fallen by the wayside, failing in local elections or resigning amid scandals of one kind or another.One of the few left is Thomas de Maizière, who became defence minister in 2011 after his predecessor, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (another former princeling), resigned when plagiarism was discovered in his doctoral dissertation. Descended from French Huguenots who migrated to Prussia, Mr de Maizière embodies an untheatrical commitment to public service. His father, Ulrich, once led the West German armed forces. His cousin Lothar was the last leader of East Germany. While advising Lothar in the throes of unification, the (western) Thomas met the (eastern) Mrs Merkel, who was Lothar’s spokeswoman. They have remained close ever since.On June 5th, Mr de Maizière testified, behind closed…
