october. president elects of the european commission thank you very much for talking to us. well it was a left on the line has now stepped down from her role as germany's defense minister she will be succeeded by an account to come. both women attended an official handover ceremony with chancellor angela merkel a little while ago compound out is also the leader of michael's conservative party she took over as the head of the christian democrats last year she is widely seen as michael's protege. and for more on that we have our chief political correspondent linda crane with us here in studio hi melinda i said i could come come by the next defense minister was it a surprise absolutely it was a surprise because around 2 weeks ago she absolutely ruled out the idea that she might become the successor to ursula fund a lot in fact ruled out taking on any ministry post saying that she wanted to concentrate on her job as party leaders so when this news broke last night most