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“The stage is yours”: The Greens and their clever swipe at the big rival

2021-04-20T07:40:36.991Z


It is the opposite of the Union: The Greens raise Annalena Baerbock with great unanimity. The candidate is moved during the presentation. She wants to shape a new style.


It is the opposite of the Union: The Greens raise Annalena Baerbock with great unanimity.

The candidate is moved during the presentation.

She wants to shape a new style.

Munich - For a moment it seems as if Annalena Baerbock wants to fall around Robert Habeck's neck. But then she thinks about it. Corona! Distance! So she stretches out one arm a little helplessly, touching the man with whom she has been running the Greens for three years on the upper arm. Then he crumbles. True to the last sentence of his address: "Annalena, the stage is yours."


This is how a power struggle can be decided (news ticker).

For months, Habeck and Baerbock had sounded out the situation behind the scenes and finally made a decision.

If you listen carefully, you can guess that it was by no means easy.

"We both wanted it, but in the end only one can do it," says Habeck.

They were "confidential, familiar, intensive and open, sometimes difficult conversations".

Baerbock also reports that it was “not always easy”.

Everyone trusted the other to do it.

The decision was finally made before Easter.

“Of course the question of emancipation also played a decisive role.” Annalena Baerbock will be the only woman who reaches for the Chancellery.

Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, the man at the side of the candidate for chancellor

In times of the primary elections, there has not been such a lonely, pardonly two-way decision. Nobody in the party dared to campaign for one or the other. Annalena and Robert would do it. This fits in with the demonstrative harmony of this duo, which broke with a long green tradition when they were elected in January 2018: For the first time, two Realos led the traditionally split party. In the polls, the Greens were bobbing around at eleven percent - about half as strong as the SPD. In her application speech, the hitherto largely unknown member of the Bundestag Baerbock had to emphasize: "Today we are not only electing the woman at Robert's side, but the new federal chairwoman of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen." Now Robert is the man at the side of the candidate for chancellor. "I always wanted to,that power is lived in such a way that we grow together and not kick each other's legs, ”says Habeck today.

Baerbock already seems a little nervous when she finally stands alone on the stage in the almost empty room, conforming to Corona. She gets tangled a few times. Sometimes she seems genuinely moved by the power of the moment. "Today begins a new chapter for our party - and if we do it well, for Germany too," she says and begins to outline her plans with plenty of pictures. Daycare centers and schools should become “the really most beautiful places”. Caregivers should have time for patients. The digital administration should work. Courage, drive, departure. It sounds like political TV commercials. “The future is not something that just happens. It's in our hands, and that's why I'm here today. ”The message is clear: While there is a lot of argument over at the Union about party committees and state boards,the greens are shaping the future. And as cloudy as possible. To paraphrase Baerbock: "A policy that looks ahead, dares to do something new, listens to people and trusts them to do something - that's what I stand for."

The Greens before the federal election: familiar content is packaged more skillfully

It is the strategy that has given the Greens soaring.

Survey numbers doubled under the Baerbock / Habeck duo.

Good mood, nice pictures, few concrete points of attack.

Flight bans, veggie days and high petrol prices?

The party has not changed in terms of content;

And with all the talk about the reinvention of Germany, it is also generously concealed that the Greens themselves have long been involved: They are involved in eleven of the 16 state governments, not least in Berlin.

It is not known that digital administration, care or the school system could serve as blueprints for Baerbock's visions.

Will this strategy survive probing questions in the election campaign? Baerbock will have to convince when it comes into the spotlight. She addresses her biggest shortcoming: "Yes, I've never been a minister," she said. But "I have a clear compass and the ability to learn". She has never come closer to power than in the unsuccessful Jamaica negotiations in 2017, when she was responsible for Europe. “I stand for renewal,” she counters. “Others stand for the status quo.” She speaks of “a different political culture - not against each other, but with one another”. That is why Baerbock and Habeck want to lead the election campaign together. He should also prepare possible coalition negotiations. As an ex-minister in Schleswig-Holstein, he even has experience of how to bring it to a successful conclusion.At Baerbock's Jamaica experience, the FDP left the negotiating table.

The party reacts enthusiastically in view of the personnel.

"For us Greens, solutions to political challenges are crucial, we spend our energy on them - personnel issues only come afterwards," says Ludwig Hartmann, parliamentary group leader in the state parliament.

Baerbock could become a "real chancellor for the whole country", says Winfried Kretschmann, Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg.

"She is a woman from the west, but who has been shaping politics in the east for many years."


Baerbock is considered the darling of the grassroots, even if Habeck is certainly better rhetorically.

In the Bundestag as well as in the party, however, their expertise and negotiating skills are valued.

Internally, it had long been expected that Baerbock could be the candidate - also because Habeck made a verbal mistake with his casual manner.

Now all eyes are on Baerbock. Your chances will ultimately also be defined by whether Corona still dominates everything in autumn. Baerbock hardly speaks about the pandemic. Your message is different: "Climate protection is the task of my generation."

(Mike Schier)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-04-20

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