Merkel, Cameron clash over who should fill top E.U. job --- BERLIN — British comedian Eddie Izzard once joked that politics in the European Union are “extraordinarily boring.” But these days, they are anything but. -- An open political brawl has broken out between the region’s two most influential leaders — German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron — over who will be the European Commission’s next president. -- A successor to President José Manuel Barroso is expected to be anointed at a summit in Brussels next week. But the candidate Merkel is backing, and the clear front-runner — Jean-Claude Juncker, former prime minister of Luxembourg — has not sat well with the British, to say the least. -- Perhaps that is not surprising. London is leading the charge to repatriate powers from Brussels, the E.U.’s administrative capital, demanding changes to rules that override domestic laws on everything from the free flow of labor around the union to human rights policies. Juncker — who would wield tremendous power over legislation and commission appointments as head of the E.U.’s executive branch — is seen in Britain as precisely the wrong person to bargain with. -- The 59-year-old career politician is seen as the ultimate insider and is often portrayed as an ally of the Brussels bureaucrats who are angling for more of the ties that bind Europe, not fewer. British tabloids, meanwhile, are fueling “Junckerphobia,” with the Sun even dubbing him “the most dangerous man in Europe.” -- Cameron, who has called for a referendum on whether Britain should leave the E.U. by 2017, has openly warned that a Juncker victory would compromise the commission’s “credibility.” Privately, according to Germany’s Der Spiegel news magazine, Cameron has gone further, saying on the sidelines of a recent summit that Juncker at the helm of the European Commission would only harden the British against the E.U. and potentially pave the way to an exit. Despite growing support for Juncker, Cameron, in comments this week, vowed to keep opposing him “right up to the end.” -- Merkel, meanwhile, has countered by seemingly questioning Cameron’s “European spirit.” When asked by reporters if Cameron was threatening her with a British exit if Juncker emerged victorious, she appeared to take a jab at No. 10 Downing St., saying “threats are not part and parcel of that spirit.” -- You could say that this is becoming a classic Greek drama, and it is turning more into a tragedy than a comedy,” said Olaf Boehnke, head of the Berlin office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. - More, http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/merkel-cameron-clash-over-who-should-fill-top-eu-job/2014/06/19/de9b4cd6-d484-4d24-9804-c903435ddcf6_story.html