Merkel Rival Wins His Party’s Nomination With 100 Percent of Vote<br />Leyen said that There is no debt account in NATO,<br />Europe said that has had a much bigger effect<br />On Sunday, Martin Schulz was anointed leader of the Social Democrats, Europe’s oldest<br />democratic party, with 100 percent of the valid votes cast at a special convention.<br />More than 13,000 people have joined the Social Democrats in recent weeks — a fact celebrated by party<br />leaders even though 2016 membership, at around 438,000, was 130,000 less than a decade earlier.<br />Martin!" when he appears and wave placards proclaiming<br />that it is "time for Schulz." His rise has apparently blunted the advances of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which now runs around 9 to 10 percent in polls.<br />Leyen said that What we all want is fair burden-sharing, which requires a modern understanding of security,<br />The result places Mr. Schulz, 61, a former president of the European Parliament, in pole position to unseat the world’s most powerful woman,<br />Chancellor Angela Merkel, when the two face off on Sept. 24 in the national election, in which Ms. Merkel is seeking a fourth term.<br />Anyone who tries to curb the freedom of the news media, Mr. Schulz emphasized, "is laying an ax on the roots of democracy, whether he<br />is the president of the United States or a protester at a rally of Pegida," the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant movement in Germany.
