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Greens: Annalena Baerbock or Robert Habeck: What works for her

2021-04-18T19:31:01.896Z


Spurred on by polls, the Greens want to reach for the Chancellery. Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck agree on the candidacy. But in the party, many want to know the decision.


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Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck: Both party leaders have ambitions to run for chancellor.

One or one has to withdraw.

Photo: 

Alexander Becher / EPA

So far it has been pretty ideal for the Greens.

It was only in the spring that their polls rose so that they no longer had half the strength of the Union, but looked like a real challenge for the CDU and CSU.

Then the media reliably asked about her candidacy for chancellor until everyone got used to the idea.

And then they held tight as to who would do it.

According to the Greens' plan, the long wait ends on Monday morning.

Then the two party chairmen Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck want to announce together with federal manager Michael Kellner how the two chairmen have agreed - if information does not leak out beforehand.

It's no secret that both of them want.

Or more precisely: wanted.

Because it's no secret that a decision has been made a long time ago.

Keeping them under lock and key for so long is the journeyman's piece of the professionalized ex-citizen scare party.

The masterpiece would be to continue working harmoniously and to contest a successful election campaign after the decision that creates a pecking order in the previously equal duo.

A consensus has long been established in the party and the public.

You think you know, or at least suspect, that Annalena Baerbock will lead the party in the election campaign.

From outsider to favorite

Three years ago, when both were elected jointly to the top of the party, that would have been a rather absurd thought, not only because of the polls at the time.

Habeck came to Schleswig-Holstein as a celebrated minister.

The party changed its statutes especially for him to give him a transition period in which he was allowed to have both office and mandate.

Actually, a minister is not allowed to be a party leader.

Baerbock, on the other hand, applied for the Frauenplatz after no applicant from the left wing had been found.

She had been the state chairman, a member of the Bundestag, a praised member of the Jamaica exploration team (like Habeck too), but only that.

After that, however, the enthusiasm for Habeck subsided somewhat, which grew for Baerbock.

In public, but also in the party.

Both still have the overwhelming majority of the party behind them.

Nevertheless, the expectation that it will boil down to Baerbock has become so solid that a decision in favor of Habeck would amount to a kind of product disappointment.

Wasn't something else promised?

What speaks for Baerbock

For Annalena Baerbock, there are many, very many in the party who would resent the Greens if a man were given preference over a woman.

Many see it that way, especially on the left.

Wasn't it the case that if the woman had the same qualifications, she would be awarded the contract?

Many Greens are firmly convinced that she is at least as qualified as he is.

She is considered smart, incredibly hardworking, competent.

On top of that as an excellent expert on the party and as well connected.

That is the next reason that speaks for her: if it came to a power struggle between the two, she would win it, and everyone knows that. She has more powerful allies, especially but not only in the Bundestag faction.

Baerbock is also considered a bank.

Habeck always had high-profile dropouts, could not explain in interviews exactly how the commuter flat rate works, what the Bafin is responsible for and how the Greens feel about Julian Assange.

Baerbock made a clumsy statement about Angela Merkel's attacks of weakness in the hot summer - but that was not a question of knowledge.

There are only a few examples, and many Greens who know Habeck as minister praise his detailed knowledge.

In addition: Baerbock can hardly argue so publicly.

She can neither take the risk of being considered a quota candidate, nor do the Greens want to refer to power relationships, nor can they portray Habeck as a breakdown candidate.

In the meantime, however, Baerbock has caught up with Habeck in surveys, which makes things easier.

If it is behind him, it is mainly because he is better received by supporters of other parties.

Among the Greens, a larger part of the polls tend to be behind her than behind him.

What speaks for Habeck

In other words, this could also speak for Robert Habeck: Don't the Greens want to become a people's party?

Don't you want to poach at the Union?

Don't people for whom feminism is crucial in their elections also vote in the end Habeck instead of Söder, Laschet or Scholz?

Experience also speaks for him. He was neither federal minister nor prime minister, like almost all chancellor candidates so far (and Martin Schulz was ridiculed because he was only mayor of Würselen) - but he has served around six years as minister for the environment, agriculture and energy in Schleswig-Holstein long done government work and advanced the energy transition in practice. People from different parties who saw him in office praise his work. He's also shown that he can win elections.

Baerbock, on the other hand, has no executive experience.

If they do, the Greens will above all have to find a good explanation as to why this is not a problem.

Especially in a duel with a Prime Minister (Laschet or Söder) and the Vice Chancellor (Scholz).

The reference to the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern or even to Barack Obama, you come across both again and again in background discussions, it is also true - but it can also quickly appear overly self-confident.

What will the reason be?

There are formally better arguments for Habeck.

Baerbock's strengths are less easy to prove and less sober to justify, regardless of gender.

That is not supposed to play the decisive role, but a decision in favor of Habeck could cause great disappointment, especially internally.

Outwardly, the Greens could show themselves unideologically, but this will probably not be an argument within their own ranks.

Officially, the party is going into the election campaign with both of them as a leadership team.

In fact, one or the other will be ahead.

That changes the mode that made the Greens so successful under Baerbock and Habeck.

Whether that works will depend on how the person who is backing off deals with it.

And maybe even more about how the candidate deals with it.

In terms of content, however, hardly anyone in the party expects the decision to make a big difference. Both are too similar for that.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-04-18

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