Because the Greens’ Baerbock is disappointing. Word of the Economist
Why Annalena Baerbock of the German Greens has disappointed many, according to the weekly Economist
The Baerbock bubble was short lived and burst spectacularly. In the weeks of April, after the German Green Party had chosen Annalena Baerbock, its 40-year-old co-chair as a candidate for chancellery, the Greens were on fire. An MP for just eight years and a co-leader for just three, Baerbock was everywhere: on magazine covers, on television talk shows and in the evening news. In some polls the Greens supplanted both established parties, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). "Endlich anders (finally something different)", declared the weekly Stern in green letters under a cover photo of Mrs. Baerbock, dressed in a black leather jacket, admiring her rise from "no politician to candidate for chancellery" . Die Zeit, another weekly, proclaimed Baerbock "die Überlegene (the top candidate)".
Had the Greens been able to sustain the momentum, they could have led the next German government and Ms Baerbock would have become Ms Merkel's successor. But Baerbock's honeymoon didn't last and the Greens are now in third place after the SPD and the CDU (plus its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union) in almost all polls. The Greens are still on track to garner perhaps twice as many votes as in 2017, and in all likelihood they will be part of the three-way coalition that is likely to be the next government. But they will be a junior rather than a senior partner – writes The Economist .
Was Mrs Baerbock a victim of her own initial success? To some extent the publicity about the likeable "Annalena", who was a competitive trampolinist in her youth and has two young daughters, was such that it was bound to disappoint. But part of her fall from grace was done by herself: she was accused of both plagiarism, in her hastily put together book, and inflating her resume. At the end of her speech at the Green Party convention in June, she cursed “Scheiße” (she didn't realize the microphone was still on). He recently angered free-market advocates by claiming that the "market couldn't care less about people."
Individually, each of these missteps is secondary. But the total number of errors tarnished his image. Many Green supporters now believe the party should have chosen Robert Habeck, a 52-year-old novelist and philosopher who is its other co-leader, as its candidate chancellor. Even the usually loyal Mr. Habeck implied that Ms. Baerbock was named because she is a woman, which in turn made him look like an angry loser.
For all of this, whatever the outcome of the election, Ms. Baerbock will likely play a role as a minister in the next ruling coalition. He has a strong command of political details and an easy communication style. And it has a lot of innovative ideas, from raising the ambitions of German climate change policy to a tougher stance towards Russia and China. He also supports the relaxation of Germany's strict tax rules to finance more public investment and a strong commitment to the European Union. The quasi novice has almost completed her baptism of fire.
(Extract from the press review of Eprcomunicazione)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/baerbock-verdi-germania-delusione/ on Sun, 19 Sep 2021 06:35:33 +0000.