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Green leader Baerbock: candidacy as a "declaration of war"
Photo: Sachelle Babbar / imago images / ZUMA Wire
The Greens are in the process of screwing up the most important election in their history.
In the polls, they are - rather lagging behind - in third place. The SPD is ahead of them, and so is the Union.
You are trying to explain that away, especially Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock.
Preferably, of course, with things for which she can do nothing.
This is the only way to explain the following quote from Baerbock in the "New York Times": What happened to her is "in a way" comparable to what happened to the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election campaign said Baerbock.
She continued: "I stand for renewal, others for the status quo and those who have an interest in the status quo see my candidacy as a declaration of war."
Baerbock is, so to speak, Clinton, and her candidacy is a declaration of war.
The party seems touched.
The omissions of the green candidate for chancellor are, it can be said so clearly, nonsense.
Hillary Clinton was not a "declaration of war" on the establishment, on the contrary.
She was Secretary of State under President Barack Obama (also a Democrat), who had previously ruled the country for eight years.
It certainly did not stand for renewal.
Greens complain about "Trump manner"
But Baerbock thinks that they are both women, and that is why the attacks on them were similar.
And in fact, lies were spread on the net about Baerbock in this election campaign, she is exposed to greater hatred and more agitation than her male colleagues.
Sexism is a huge problem that shouldn't be downplayed.
And it's true: structural sexism played a role in both election campaigns.
But that's where the similarities end.
Neither Olaf Scholz nor Armin Laschet are trusted even a bit of what Donald Trump said and tweeted about Hillary Clinton.
It is not the first time that the Greens have seen themselves threatened by a Trump-like campaign or compared to its victims.
When Baerbock forgot to report her additional income, the CSU spread an image on social media that showed Baerbock with a heap of emoji over his head.
The Green MP Katharina Dröge accused the CSU in the "Handelsblatt" of acting in "Trump style".
Trump manner?
Please.
When a debate about the future of the home escalated in February, the Greens found themselves exposed to a “fake news campaign”.
Now you could dismiss that and say that the Greens are a little sensitive, they always have been, but they have lofty goals.
But: The party is playing down what Trump has done to American democracy.
He incited his followers to storm the United States Capitol.
You have to be clear about that.
You have to keep in mind how divided the country has been since him.
How broken.
Fake news is bad, and it is bad when women politicians are exposed to hatred, agitation and lies on the internet and in the streets.
But Germany is not the USA.
Luckily.
And whoever pretends that the local election campaign is to be equated with the faecal battle there is not showing any political clarity - just his own thin skin.
