Baerbock renounces repeated Chancellor candidacy - gaze shifts to Habeck
Baerbock justified her decision with the demands of her ministerial position. "Instead of being bound in a chancellor candidacy", she wanted to continue to fully and completely dedicate her strength to her current task, she said in an interview with the US news channel CNN.
"The world is obviously very different from the last Federal Election", Baerbock added in the interview on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington. "In the face of the Russian aggression war and now also the dramatic situation in the Middle East, it needs less, but more diplomacy", she said. However, in the campaign she would do everything to support her party, as she had done the last time.
Baerbock's announcement could pave the way for a chancellor candidate Habeck. This one initially did not comment on his own ambitions: "The party committees will decide on further proceedings", said the Federal Economics Minister.
Two years ago, the Green party committees had decided to hold a primary election among members if there were two or more promising candidates for the chancellor candidacy. In 2021, the then Green party leaders Baerbock and Habeck made the decision between themselves. Baerbock had given Habeck the candidacy - but he had not hidden that he himself would have liked to be the candidate. The Greens finished the election with a voting share of 14.8 percent behind SPD and Union.
The Greens avoided a premature decision on a chancellor candidate Habeck on Thursday. "He must decide for himself whether he wants that - but I have great trust in him", said Fraktions leader Katharina Dröge to RTL and ntv. The question will now first be dealt with by the party committees.
Green Bundestag MP Sven-Christian Kindler expressed the expectation that Habeck would play an extremely important role for them in the campaign. The decision will be made in the party committees, he also said. "We need team play."
Somewhat skeptical was the Green Bundestag MP Felix Banaszak in the "Rheinische Post": Habeck must prove that he can take the party with him in its breadth and wants to, he said.
Baerbock received much praise for her decision to step down from her own ranks. "We know and appreciate Annalena Baerbock: A responsible person for the whole and a team player", wrote party chairwoman Ricarda Lang on X. "A foreign minister, like her, is needed in this moment as much as perhaps never before."
Nobody embodies active European foreign policy as much as Baerbock, wrote party chairman Omid Nouripour on X. "Thanks to her, Germany is a reliable partner in the world." She showed again with her decision that she is exactly the right person for that.
The chairwoman of the Green Bundestag fraction, Britta Haßelmann, also called Baerbock a "team player through and through". She is known for that in the party. "She shows great responsibility, in this crisis-ridden time and this world situation, to fully and wholeheartedly commit to foreign policy", Haßelmann told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).
Baden-Württemberg's Green Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann praised the foreign minister as well. "I have great respect for this decision", he told the Tagesspiegel. Baerbock leads her office "with strength and foresight", he added.
In the current "Trendbarometer" of Institute Forsa on behalf of RTL and ntv, the Greens achieved approval ratings of only eleven percent this week and ranked fourth as a result. The Union therefore had 30 percent, the AfD 17 percent, and the SPD 14 percent.
- Annalena Baerbock, the Green party's chancellor candidate in the 2021 Federal Election, expressed her decision to focus on her ministerial role during an interview with the US news broadcaster CNN in Washington, citing the need for her full dedication.
- Discussing the current global situation, Baerbock highlighted the importance of diplomacy in light of the Russian aggression war and the Middle East crisis, stating that the world needs less, but more of it.
- Baerbock's announcement could potentially pave the way for Robert Habeck, the Federal Economics Minister, who previously expressed his interest in the chancellor candidacy but remained silent on his ambitions following her declaration.
- In the past, Green party committees had decided to hold a primary election among members for the chancellor candidacy if there were multiple promising candidates, but Baerbock and Habeck settled the matter internally in 2021.
- At the NATO Summit in Washington, Baerbock's Green party colleagues, like party leader Katharina Dröge, expressed their support for Habeck's potential chancellor candidacy, while voicing the importance of teamwork during the campaign.
- Skeptical voices like Green Bundestag MP Felix Banaszak called for Habeck to prove his ability to lead the party across its ideological spectrum and demonstrated his commitment to the role.
- Baerbock's decision to step down as a chancellor candidate in favor of fully committing to her ministerial position was widely praised by Green party leaders and politicians, including Omid Nouripour, Britta Haßelmann, and Winfried Kretschmann.
