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Annalena Baerbock: Green Chancellor candidate reacts to criticism on TV

2021-06-11T12:45:44.300Z


Forgotten additional income, refined résumé, survey crashes - the pressure on Annalena Baerbock is growing. Now the Green Chancellor candidate defended herself on TV. Will you succeed in breaking free?


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Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock

Photo: Florian Gaertner / photothek.de / imago images / photothek

Annalena Baerbock does not have much time for the appearance, which is supposed to be a liberation.

15 minutes - but at prime time.

The Green boss is sitting in the ARD studio in Berlin this Thursday evening.

"Show your colors" is the name of the show.

For Baerbock this means: two moderators fire you up with tough questions in a fast run.

And yet it is actually something like addressing the nation of a woman who is only a candidate and not yet Chancellor.

There's a lot to explain.

It's about fundamentals.

To Baerbock's campaign, to gain credibility.

Too much has gone wrong recently for the hopefuls of the eco party.

There was the thing with the additional income, which Baerbock reported much too late;

anger over party troublemaker Boris Palmer;

the tough attacks on the Greens' climate plans;

the disappointing result of the election in Saxony-Anhalt.

And of course there was Baerbock's résumé on her website.

The chancellor candidate had obviously pimped it up with misleading information.

Memberships in organizations and foundations were listed there to which Baerbock was formally not a member.

"That was obviously very sloppy"

Even if there was no malicious intent behind this, the public outcry still reverberates.

That is the main reason why Baerbock is here now, in front of the cameras.

She is in defense mode.

"I wanted anything but make myself bigger than I am," says the Greens chairwoman.

You made a mistake.

"That was obviously very sloppy," she says.

"I am very sorry about that."

Baerbock is refined, maximum transparency - that is now the motto.

This is how she wants to heal what has broken.

Sure, you could dismiss the cobbled together résumé as a petitesse in the election campaign.

But Baerbock wants to become Chancellor of one of the largest industrial nations in the world.

She competes with the reputation of a perfectionist and the high moral standards that the Greens place on themselves and others.

Something crumbles when someone like that loses control even on a small scale.

Crucial phase

For Baerbock it is really not a feel-good date.

How professional can she be?

Shouldn't the Greens make their co-boss Robert Habeck a candidate for chancellor?

Outwardly, Baerbock parried the sharp questions calmly.

Part two of her strategy: She tries to express that completely different things are important than her résumé.

It is about schools, families, the climate.

"We want big changes for the people in this country," she says.

The TV appearance that evening is extremely important for Baerbock.

In general, she and her party may be in a crucial phase of the election campaign.

The mistakes after the initial euphoria surrounding Baerbock's nomination have left their mark.

Two recent polls do not bode well for the eco party.

In the ZDF Politbarometer and in the ARD Germany trend, the Greens lost and are now well behind the Union.

Above all, however, Baerbock sagged when it came to the question of being a chancellor.

In May, according to the Politbarometer, 43 percent of people thought the Greens were fit for chancellor.

Now it's only 28 percent.

For comparison: Baerbock's competitors, Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz, come in at 43 and 48 percent.

Can Baerbock and the Greens recover from this?

Will they make the comeback to get back into the fight for first place that they want so much to wage?

Or is it going even further down for them, below 20 percent, even in areas in which the SPD is located?

Then they wouldn't even be able to secure their chancellorship if there was enough for a traffic light coalition or a center-left alliance.

Sharpen your social profile

To get off the defensive, the Greens apparently rely on another recipe: They want to sharpen their social profile, emphasize left-wing positions - and thus counter the accusations of their opponents, the Greens pursued heartless climate policy at the expense of the people.

Baerbock also strikes such notes that evening.

She speaks of the minimum wage, of »energy money«, of redistribution via a higher top tax rate and a wealth tax.

There is much to suggest that we will hear more about these things this weekend.

That's when the Greens come together for their digital federal party conference.

Left parties are pushing for the program to be sharpened in terms of social policy.

Above all, the party congress offers the stumbling Greens the chance to finally take the initiative to send positive messages again.

Also for Baerbock personally.

Your performance is scheduled for Saturday, 3:30 p.m.

If things go well for them, Baerbock takes the opportunity to switch from defense and attack mode.

It could be the most important political speech of her career.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-06-11

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