FRANCE’S AMERICAN SORROWS:

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Europe’s anthem for a goodbye: Risking an overshare, by her standards — crisis communication was the order of most of her days in her previous job as Germany’s defense minister — von der Leyen recently told Bild am Sonntag she wants the “Ode to Joy” for her last military tattoo on August 15. She has two more wishes for songs.

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BECAUSE IT WORKED SO WELL THE FIRST TIME: Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is open to a new government coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, he told media on Tuesday. Austria heads to the polls for a snap election on September 29, after the government collapsed in the wake of the FPÖ’s Ibizagate scandal. “Basically I do not rule out any coalition option,” Kurz told public broadcaster ORF, though he did rule out allowing the FPÖ’s former interior minister back into his Cabinet. “Should I lead a government again and should it be with the Freedom Party again, then, from my point of view, Herbert Kickl cannot become a minister,” Kurz told Oe24.

BARK OR BITE? The U.S. has formally asked Germany to join its naval security mission in the Persian Gulf, a spokeswoman for Washington’s embassy in Berlin told dpa. Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer might need to respond at some point soon. The U.S. is currently already providing security for trade activities in the Strait of Hormuz, the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. “Members of the German government have been clear that phone number library freedom of navigation should be protected,” the spokeswoman said. “Our question is, protected by whom?” Background here.

Good timing: Kramp-Karrenbauer is in Brussels today for a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, her first visit to the alliance.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on French wine in retaliation for France’s digital services tax is “absurd” and “absolutely stupid,” the country’s Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume said. “It’s absurd for a political and economic debate to say: ‘You tax the GAFA, we will tax your wine.’ It’s completely stupid,” Guillaume told BFMTV news channel, referring to the digital services tax, also known as the Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon tax in French. “In any case, we will try to negotiate [with the U.S.].” More — including the difference between a digital services tax and trade in wine — by Hans von der Burchard.