I hazard a guess that Elbers "refused" (allegedly) to become AFKL CEO last year, not because he did not want, but perhaps he was not yet fully ready at the time.
Nope: he said he would accept if they would keep the same two CEO set up with Leo van Wijk and the then AF CEO. This worked well but also kept enough distance between the companies. It has been KLM's fear for years that there will be a full integration and that the french part of the company will burn all the KLM reserves and profits...