Despite weak poll numbers, the Greens are heading into an early federal election with their own candidate for chancellor. Federal Minister of Economics and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck wants to stand for election at the upcoming party conference in just over a week. Habeck announced his candidacy on Friday in a video known.
The fact that Habeck would become the top candidate has been an open secret among the Greens for months. He has had free rein since his competitor Annalena Baerbock withdrew in early summer. He is already pulling the strings in the ongoing restructuring of the party leadership and has been considered the party’s leading figure par excellence for months. However, he had not yet officially declared his candidacy and had only indicated that he was ready to take on responsibility. “I don’t want to accept that fear and anger consume us,” Habeck says in the nine-minute-long video, recorded at a kitchen table. “That’s why I decided. That’s why I’m running again.”
Clues could also be seen in a staged desk video – such as a bracelet belonging to Habeck with the words “Kanzler era” and a calendar entry for this Friday marked in red.
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Habeck now says he offers his experience and his strength. “If you want, also as chancellor.” Up to now it was unclear whether the Greens would actually declare their right to move into the chancellery, given the approval of only ten to eleven percent of the vote – especially since their hopes were high in view of the new and early election date in the spring now dwindle even more to make up percentage points.
Some people dislike Habeck’s “takeover”.
For the Greens, the government’s exit, which was sealed on Wednesday evening, comes at an inopportune time. The party actually wanted to start its own new beginning well in advance of the federal election. A week from Friday, the Green party conference, the “Federal Delegates Conference,” is scheduled to determine a completely new leadership team.
Then Habeck confidant Franziska Brantner and leftist Felix Banaszak, who is close to Habeck, will take over the party leadership from Omid Nouripour and Ricarda Lang, who had announced their withdrawal along with large parts of the board. Brantner also comes from the Realo camp and, like the Vice Chancellor, is considered a pragmatist and someone who wants to locate the party in the middle of society rather than on the left-wing fringe. Banaszak is considered a moderate representative of the left wing of the party.
:Judgment on the broken coalition
In Illner, Lanz and Maischberger, those involved and those not involved take stock of the traffic light shutdown. Things get exciting in a nutshell: with the details of Vice Chancellor Habeck’s latest social media video.
However, Habeck’s new power also sparks discussions among the Greens. Even before the party leadership resigned, some people at the Green Party headquarters were talking about an “imminent takeover.” Habeck would have preferred to send two dozen people to the party headquarters for the election campaign. They resisted this and felt they were well prepared, even without extra manpower from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Now the entire party is tailored to him.
The heating law has not been forgotten
Habeck is also working on coming to terms with the most painful day of his political career. At least that’s how he described the day in April 2021 when he gave up running for chancellor in favor of Annalena Baerbock. “I’m not in the position I’ve been working towards,” he said in an interview with the at the time Time. In the end, the party came in below its own expectations with 14.7 percent. Many blamed Baerbock’s election campaign mishaps.
As a result, Habeck systematically positioned himself for the upcoming federal election. Although he was not the candidate for chancellor, he secured the office of vice-chancellor in the traffic light coalition – and thus a prominent position within the Green ministers. As economics minister, he hardly missed a stage and also trimmed green politics towards a pragmatic, centrist course. During the energy crisis, he became the republic’s top crisis manager and threw many green principles overboard – for example, in order to get replacements for Russian gas as quickly as possible. Many in the environmental associations still take this seriously to this day. At the same time, party friends also attest to his great flexibility, which should not necessarily be taken as a compliment. As a campaigner, he could definitely set different accents.
For Habeck, his candidacy begins a difficult mission. Because at the moment there is little sign of a new departure for the Greens. The party has tried four times this year to get out of the slump in elections – four times it went completely wrong. In the European elections in June, the Greens almost halved their result, from more than 20 to 11.9 percent. This was followed by double state elections. In Saxony, the Greens managed to get back into the state parliament with just 5.1 percent. In Thuringia, the party clearly failed to reach the five percent hurdle, with the bar remaining at 3.2 percent at the end of the evening. In Brandenburg, the Greens fell from eleven to four percent. The party is a long way from the values that lead to the chancellorship.
There is great hope in parts of the party that Habeck will achieve a turnaround with his popularity and persuasive power. Millions of Germans watch his explanatory videos on current topics. But not everyone thinks he is the best candidate. Some people think it’s unfair that the party leaders had to leave, since the big mistakes actually happened in Robert Habeck’s Ministry of Economics. Ultimately, the curves went downwards, especially after Robert Habeck’s heating law was made public and was messed up in terms of communication. The image of a party that literally wants to go through the basement wall when it comes to climate protection has now solidified in the country – no matter what the cost.
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