At a joint appearance in Berlin, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economics Minister Robert Habeck visibly tried to be relaxed with each other. “This morning we had a great appearance together in the cabinet and many, many before that,” said Baerbock in response to a question that was actually aimed at her role in the upcoming federal election campaign. She made her comments at a press conference on the sidelines of a meeting of the extended executive board of the Green parliamentary group, where she was on stage with Habeck.
“So the question was: ‘How does it feel?'” Baerbock continued. “It feels good, even if I’m sweating here. It’s less because of Robert Habeck than because of this perceived 45-degree temperature in the room.” Habeck stood beside her, amused, and interjected that “no one was there” in the cabinet. The meetings of the government members are not public.
Baerbock put her hand on his arm, and he put his hand on her back as they left the stage. The relationship between the two former co-leaders of the Greens has had its ups and downs, and at times it was noticeably tense.
Habeck is considered a likely top candidate
Baerbock had announced in July that she herself would not seek to run for chancellor again for her party in the next election campaign. She wanted to devote herself fully to her role as foreign minister. Habeck, who is now considered his party’s likely top candidate, made it clear in an interview with “Politico” a few weeks ago that the starting position for his party in the upcoming election campaign was much more difficult than in 2021, when Baerbock was the candidate for chancellor.
At that time, even after mistakes by their candidate, the Greens achieved a significantly worse result than the polls had hoped for a few months earlier. “In 2021, we had tailwind, everyone wanted to govern with us. The polls were stable at 20 percent and above,” Habeck told Politico at the time. Now, however, they are at the bottom and have to work their way back up. Habeck had already wanted to be his party’s candidate for chancellor in 2021.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240904-930-223184/1
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