Though leaks abound as to who may be the successful appointees to the positions of the presidency and foreign minister of the European Union, no clear statement has yet been forthcoming on who the real front-runners are.

In what appears to be a reaction to reports that “France and Germany were expected to join forces to choose a new-look European Union head.” Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, declared that appointments to the two top EU jobs will not result from Franco-German pressure.

Mr. Reinfeldt stated he did not want France and Germany dictating the new president and foreign minister to the rest of the EU. “It is not just about two telling us what to do and then thinking we have the answer,” he said.

This simply denies a reality that think tank Stratfor seemed to understand in its analysis last week, noting that any appointee to these positions would inevitably have to be supported by the EU’s two dominant nations.

It may be that Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy have already agreed on who would be acceptable in the two top EU jobs, and who would not. The reality is that unless the remaining 25 EU leaders can present a case for each appointment that satisfies Germany and France, it is simply not going to float.

As Stratfor rightly observed (November 4):

The key motivation for the Lisbon Treaty is the realization by Europe’s main powers—France and Germany—that as individual states they do not matter on the world stage, but they do matter insofar as they can rule their entire continent. The changes that will be implemented under the treaty are meant to give Germany and France the tools they need to dominate a more coherent Europe, if they can coordinate their European and foreign policies. The Lisbon Treaty is Europe’s effort to create a decision-making structure that will turn the EU’s disjointed political reality into a coherent whole.

With pressure mounting to announce the names appointed to these positions—created by the Lisbon Treaty/EU constitution—by December 1, the Swedish prime minister must be sweating seeking to meet the deadline. Already it seems that his initial plan to hold a summit to formalize the appointments this week may have been too hopeful. The EU leaders are known for their remarkable ability to bicker when facing a tight deadline.

The Swedish EU presidency website published an item stating that Mr. Reinfeldt told journalists during the Berlin Wall commemoration, “I am now phoning all the EU heads of state and government to hear who they want to fill these posts. I am half-way through my consultations.” That was on Monday, but no news as to consensus on the names to be attached to the new jobs has been yet forthcoming.

All this seems only too true to EU form, presenting a real nail-biting finish in the race to fill the EU’s two most important positions.

But, such fiascoes have been part of the history of the fractious European Union. Even more reason for this huge, unwieldy global political behemoth to ensure that the men at the helm who will drive the EU’s global leadership and diplomacy from here on are leaders with a capacity to fulfill the grand imperial design of the elite behind-the-scenes movers and shakers which hail from Berlin and Rome. In reality, it is they who will either make or break the men who take each of these high-profile EU jobs.

One thing is for sure: When these two top jobs are filled, action will commence to accelerate the division of the whole trundling mess of 27 EU nations into a more effective organization. We need to watch for this and its effects on the acceleration of EU power as its top governing executive powers are split into 10 great divisions, all ultimately responsible to its imperial head.

“They are to be 10 heads of state over 10 European nations, temporarily united as a ‘United States of Europe.’ They are symbolized in Daniel 2 as the 10 toes, of iron and miry clay—which will not mix, and therefore shall be short-lived! … But they will give all their military and monetary power to the central ruler over the 10—the coming European leader” (Herbert W. Armstrong, co-worker letter, Aug. 14, 1978).

Whoever the first appointee to that position is—be it a fall guy, be he a failure in office or a real powerhouse of a leader—one thing is for sure, there will ultimately arise in Europe a leader who will enter a position of leading power by flatteries, and who will lead this resurrecting Holy Roman Empire to its prophesied destiny! (Daniel 11:21; Revelation 17:12-13).