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