Germany: Greens nominate Baerbock as candidate for chancellor

Berlin - The Greens nominated Annalena Baerbock as candidate for chancellor for the federal election on Monday. The party leader prevailed against her co-chairman Robert Habeck. It is the first time that the Greens are campaigning with their own claim to the chancellorship.

Habeck called his counterpart on Monday morning at a press conference in Berlin as a “focused woman”. She will not campaign alone. He will bring his government experience “even more than before”. In the past, Baerbock had been accused of having no such experience.

The newly elected Green candidate said this was just the beginning. Your party has “a clear idea” to “lead the diverse, strong country into a good future”. But changes are necessary for this. Climate protection should become the "future foundation for prosperity and security". She addressed the topics of education (daycare centers and schools should be the “most beautiful places”), digitization, care and a (“diverse and cosmopolitan”) society.

"This country needs a fresh start"
Climate protection is "the task of our time". The future political yardstick must be "to fulfill Paris". Baerbock was addressing the United Nations Paris Agreement from 2015. It provides for man-made global warming to be reduced to well below two degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial values.

Baerbock, who has been party leader since 2018, called for a "new understanding of political leadership". A green government, is "decisive, transparent, capable of learning and self-critical". She herself has never been a minister, she stands for renewal, and others stand for the status quo. "This country needs a fresh start."

She stands for “a policy that looks ahead, that dares something new” and “that remains humane and empathetic despite the need to make tough decisions”. Politicians must now surpass themselves, and the Greens would stand up for it.

Green clearly in second place in surveys
Baerbock is to be confirmed as candidate for chancellor at a party congress in June. At the weekend she had already been chosen as the top candidate in Brandenburg. At a state party congress on Saturday, she was almost unanimously placed on list number 1 on the state list for the federal election.

In polls, the Greens are currently clearly in second place behind the Union with 20 to 22 percent. If at all, they could provide the Chancellor in a three-party alliance of green-red-red or in a so-called traffic light with the SPD and FDP. According to the latest survey by Kantar on behalf of the Bild newspaper, green-red-red would make up 45 percent.

Baerbock's political ideas

In April 2016, Baerbock took over a guarantee for an unlimited period at that time for the legal entry of a Syrian war refugee as part of the initiative of the refugee sponsors Syria. She is the chairwoman of the Hand in Hand Potsdam association, in which people are involved in helping migrants. Baerbock is also a member of the non-partisan European Union Germany. She is also a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Energy, climate and environmental policy

• Baerbock called for coal to be phased out by 2030, a speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour, and “by 2030 at the latest” only the registration of new, emission-free cars.
• Farmers should be able to earn money with climate protection”, and animal populations and meat production should be“ reduced very significantly”.
• Domestic German flights are to be "superfluous by 2035" by improving the rail network. The “principle of technology openness” continues to apply to the Greens.

European refugee policy

• In 2019 she proposed “a generous quota for legal escape to Europe” as well as a joint distribution of refugees and an emergency program to build a European sea rescue mission.
• She also suggested setting up initial reception centers at the EU's external borders, where refugees can be “quickly registered, subjected to a security check and data comparison” so that they can be distributed within the EU as quickly as possible and then asylum procedures can be initiated.
• Baerbock calls for "a stronger common European commitment in defense policy". “Europe has been revolving around itself for years, the Trump administration has turned its back on the world. The void that has arisen is filled by authoritarian states, ”she said. If the West does not want to leave the field to states like China, Russia or Turkey, Europe must take its "peace role" in the world more seriously again. 

Economic policy

• The "industrial location Germany" should be maintained, but growth must take place "in the sense of a socio-ecological market economy, within the planetary boundaries", and prosperity should be defined in a "broader" sense, including the ecological.
• Climate protection goals are to be “dovetailed” with economic policy, and among other things.

Source: Junge Freiheit