Annalena Baerbock is said to be tough, talented, and very ambitious. But since she was named as Germany's Green Party's candidate for chancellor, she has been faced with a barrage of personal attacks.
Annalena Baerbock has been sharpening her political profileImage: Michael Sohn/REUTERS
But then she suffered a barrage of personal attacks, putting her on the defensive, as criticism targeted her personal credibility: Baerbock, who has never held a government office, was accused of minor inaccuracies in her official resume, of a delay in paying taxes on a sizable Christmas bonus, on plagiarizing parts of her new book, and then she used a racial slur in a quote in an interview.
Each time Baerbock was quick to apologize. But her approval ratings declined, and the party's campaign did not managed to regain the positive momentum of earlier in the year.
Germany's Green party: How it evolved
Germany's Greens have been trailblazers for ecological movements around the world. But since the 1980s they have become increasingly mainstream.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Pfund
1980: Unifying protest movements
The Green party was founded in 1980, unifying a whole array of regional movements made up of people frustrated by mainstream politics. It brought together feminists, environmental, peace and human rights activists. Many felt that those in power were ignoring environmental issues, as well as the dangers of nuclear power.
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Attracting high-profile leftists
The influential German artist Joseph Beuys (left) was a founding member of the new party. And its alternative agenda and informal style quickly attracted leftist veterans from the 1968 European protest movement, including eco-feminist activist Petra Kelly (right), who coined the phrase that the Greens were the "anti-party party."
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Party ambiance at party meetings
From the start the Green party conferences were marked by heated debate and extreme views. Discussions went on for many hours and sometimes a joyous party atmosphere prevailed.
Image: Imago Images/F. Stark
Greens enter the Bundestag
In 1983 the Greens entered the German parliament, the Bundestag, having won 5.6% in the national vote. Its members flaunted their anti-establishment background and were eyed by their fellow parliamentarians with a certain amount of skepticism.
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Green Party icon Joschka Fischer
Joschka Fischer became the first Green party regional government minister in 1985 when he famously took the oath of office wearing white sports sneakers. He later became German foreign minister in an SPD-led coalition government. And was vilified by party members for abandoning pacifism in support of German intervention in Kosovo in 1999.
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Unification in a united Germany
With German reunification, the West German Greens merged with the East German protest movement "Bündnis 90" in 1993. But the party never garnered much support in the former East Germany (GDR).
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Pro-Europe
Today's Green voters are generally well-educated, high-earning urbanites with a strong belief in the benefits of multicultural society and gender equality. And no other party fields more candidates with an immigrant background. The party focuses not only on environmental issues and the climate crisis but a much broader spectrum of topics including education, social justice, and consumer policies.
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Turning conservative
Environmental topics are no longer the exclusive prerogative of the Greens, whose members have morphed from hippies to urban professionals. Winfried Kretschmann personifies this change: The conservative first-generation Green politician became the party's first politician to serve as a state premier. He teamed up with the Christian Democrats and has been reelected twice to lead Baden-Württemberg.
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Robert Habeck moves the party to the center
In 2021, Robert Habeck stepped aside to allow Annalena Baerbock to be the party's top candidate in the general election campaign. Three years later, the roles are reversed. Both symbolize the new pragmatism and confidence of the Greens and are not interested in the trench warfare between fundamentalists and pragmatists that marked the Green party debates of the early years.
In live TV debates with her two competitors for the chancellorship — Armin Laschet, of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), and Olaf Scholz, of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) — Baerbock scored points with younger voters.
She attacked the current CDU-SPD coalition government over its dismal record on climate protection. "We are missing our climate targets, with dramatic consequences, and you have both made clear that you didn't orientate yourselves around the solutions, but just pushed the blame on each other about who was hindering what," she said.
Baerbock has been arguing in favor of phasing out coal-powered energy far earlier than the current target date of 2038. She also backs a speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour (78 miles per hour) on the autobahn, as German highways are known, and limiting short-haul flights. She also supports a raise in the minimum wage to €12 ($14) per hour, and she opposes a hike in German defense spending.
Baerbock has also spoken out on thorny foreign policy issues, advocating a tough stance on Russia and China over human rights issues. She has also spoken on the threats posed by far-right populism and xenophobia.
The Greens have traditionally failed to gain ground in rural areas and especially in eastern Germany. Baerbock and her family of four have long been based in the eastern city of Potsdam.
Early on, Baerbock was driven by ambition. Born in 1980 in the small town of Pattensen in Lower Saxony, she was a natural athlete, placing third at Germany's national trampolining championship. She was only 16 when she went to spend a year in the United States. Later, she studied law in Hannover before going on to the London School of Economics, where she studied international law. As a result, Baerbock gives interviews in fluent English — something that, even in this day and age, can't be taken for granted among German politicians.
In an interview with DW in early 2021, Baerbock welcomed President Joe Biden's decision to bring the US back into the Paris climate agreement.
"We Europeans, including the German government, need to take advantage of the current situation to realize the proposals that the US administration has put forward concerning climate-neutral cooperation," she said. "We need to get moving and point the way towards a European and trans-Atlantic Green Deal."
German election 2021: Governing coalition options
A German government needs a 50% majority in parliament, but no one party can get so much voter support. So they agree on coalitions — and the next government will be no exception. Here is an overview of the options.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Hörhager
Deciphering the color code
The center-right Christian Democrat CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU are symbolized by the color black. The center-left Social Democrat SPD is red, as is the socialist Left Party. The neoliberal Free Democrats' (FDP) color is yellow. And the Greens are self-explanatory. German media often refer to color combinations and national flags, using them as shorthand for political coalitions.
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Black, red, green — the Kenya coalition
A coalition of center-right Christian Democrats (black) and center-left Social Democrats (red) plus the Green Party would secure a comfortable majority. Such a coalition has been in power in the state of Brandenburg. On a federal level this would be a first.
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Black, yellow and green — the Jamaica coalition
The center-right Christian Democrats have often teamed up with the much smaller pro-free market Free Democrats (FDP) at the state and the national level over the years. Taking in the Greens to form a three-way coalition would be an option attractive to many in the CDU. But the Greens and the FDP do not make easy bedfellows, and a similar attempt failed after the last election in 2017.
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Black, red, yellow — the Germany coalition
The center-right CDU and the center-left SPD plus the business-focused FDP. This combination would easily clear the 50% threshold in parliament, and would be the preferred option for business leaders and high-income earners. But if the SPD takes the lead we'd see red, black, yellow — a less conservative option.
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Red, red, green
The Social Democrats teaming up with the Greens and the Left Party is a specter the conservatives like to raise whenever they perform badly in the polls. But the SPD and Left Party have a difficult history. And the Left's extreme foreign policy positions would likley hamper negotiations.
Image: Imago/C. Ohde
Red, yellow, green — a 'traffic light' coalition
The free-market-oriented liberal FDP has in the past generally ruled out federal coalitions sandwiched between the Social Democrats and the Greens. But this year, the FDP has not ruled out any options. Germany's traditional kingmaker party may above all be keen to return to power — no matter in which color combination.
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Black and red, red and black — the 'grand coalition'
A "grand coalition" of CDU and SPD, the "big tent parties," has been in power for the past eight years with the conservatives taking the lead. If the election results allow it, this combination may continue in government ... with the stronger party naming the chancellor.
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Possible coalitions
Both Baerbock and her co-party chair, Robert Habeck, have few inhibitions about talking to members of other parties, to seek possible common ground.
Initially, there was speculation about a possible conservative-Green coalition in Berlin after the 2021 election, but, with the SPD rising in the polls, Baerbock began to stress that a center-left coalition would be her preference.
Germany needs a new beginning, Baerbock stressed during her campaign, pointing out that her two competitors were both in their early 60s. "That can only happen with Greens in a leading role," she said, stressing that all democratic parties would have to talk to each other. In doing so, she included the Left Party. She warned strongly against equating the Left with the far-right Alternative for Germany.
This is a reworked and updated version of an article that was first published on April 3, 2021.
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