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On target: Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck
Photo: Chris Emil Janssen / imago images / Chris Emil Janssen
There are politicians whose mood is obvious.
Robert Habeck is such a politician.
When he's in a good mood, he's one of the best speakers in the country.
When he's not in a good mood, his thoughts seem to jump and his sentences follow.
Then he sounds grumpy.
Like this evening.
Annalena Baerbock, on the other hand, finds it harder to talk, at least since she became party leader. She gets muddled every now and then, she falters in places where the listeners don't expect faltering, it then seems as if she has to collect herself. Not so tonight. She looks relieved.
For the last time, Habeck and Baerbock are on stage together as party leaders of the Greens. They were elected four years ago, at that time under the motto »This is just the beginning«. In the four years, the Greens have doubled their number of members, they have had their greatest electoral successes, the highlight was the European elections in 2019: the Greens won 20.5 percent at the time. Habeck and Baerbock led their party into government, they became ministers, Habeck Minister for Economic Affairs and Baerbock Minister for Foreign Affairs. But they did not achieve their goal of occupying the chancellorship. They have not become a people's party. And they didn't even get 15 percent in the general election.
Nevertheless, they have reached their destination.
They enjoy it, you can tell.
However, she does not savor her successes as party leader on stage.
Habeck says it was an "antiseptic farewell," there was hardly any time for sentimentality, the new jobs are important, and rituals have always been less important to the Greens.
He doesn't want to overestimate his time as party leader: "It's not the end of an era, it's just the beginning of a new act," he says.
That sounds pretty unspectacular.
Baerbock joins.
In the past, others would have commented when they gave speeches together: he looked askance, commented on her dress wrong, she forgot to turn off her microphone – for example in the summer of 2021, when Baerbock's first word after her speech was a courageous "shit".
"Now we don't really care about any of that," she says.
That's what she's talking about tonight.
The fact that they are together is mainly due to the fact that they wanted to say thank you together.
But then they don't want to do much more together.
"The act will now be continued with other roles," she says, "I think we're both looking forward to it."
Baerbock leaves the stage to Habeck, who no longer bothers with party folklore.
»We just have 14.X percent, not 25 percent«
Instead, he criticizes: He considers the debate on whether the Greens could govern to be “totally nonsensical”.
They are good when they have thought things "from the point of view" and "not from the logic of the party".
"Party is not an end in itself," he explains.
The purpose is to shape reality.
»This is not oh woe, oh woe, difficult reality.
It's a privilege,” he says.
But the reality the Greens face is harsh.
Habeck is working through the coalition negotiations, of course they would have liked to have had the Ministry of Transport, "but hey, we just have 14.X percent, not 25 percent," something is always missing.
Then he arrives in his reality.
It's about the unloved taxonomy, the Greens didn't want to classify nuclear power and gas as sustainable - but they have to accept the EU's decision.
“Does anyone think the world would be better if the other parties did that?” Habeck asks.
Then he talks about the KfW funding, which is now surprisingly running out because there is no more money for it.
He says many projects would still be realized, the program had gotten out of hand.
It was "uncomfortable" to take political responsibility for the decision.
"But, conversely, how glad can we be that we now have responsibility?" The next program, he promises, will be more social.
Habeck wants to govern, he no longer wants to be party leader.
After this speech there can be no more doubt.
When he's done, he crouches on two steps at the edge of the stage.
It's a typical Habeck pose.
They are not sad
Baerbock comes back on stage.
She talks less about problems, doesn't quarrel with the party or her election campaign, in which she made many mistakes and which this party congress is supposed to deal with.
But Baerbock is silent about it.
Instead, she tells the story of Inge Auerbacher, who survived the Holocaust as a young girl and spoke in the Bundestag on Holocaust Remembrance Day this week.
In parliament, Auerbacher remembered her friend Ruth, who did not survive the Shoah.
Baerbock's voice falters.
Auerbacher, she says, wears a butterfly to commemorate the murdered children of the Shoah.
Baerbock later brought Auerbacher together with Berlin schoolchildren.
One of the students wore a butterfly on her necklace.
"These are very small moments, you don't write a law, you don't actually do anything as a minister, you're very lucky to be able to bring people together in this government responsibility," she says.
The few present clap.
Baerbock says there will be hard times.
Politics is the willingness not to put things off on others, but to try it yourself.
If the applause had been measured, it would have been clearer at Baerbock, even if only very few party members were there.
She is the party's favorite leader, and that hasn't changed in four years.
At the end, when Claudia Roth recites her a farewell anthem, including lyrics by John Lennon, tears come to her eyes.
One gets the impression that she will miss the job more than Habeck will and than she initially let on.
"It was an honor for me," she says at the end.
With Habeck it sounds like this: "A few last words and then you're rid of us as party leaders."