Annalena Baerbock presents herself as the candidate of "renewal". In reality, she embodies the continuity of the Germany that Angela Merkel has modernized, but with the touch of a new generation. The journalist Ulrich Schulte, author of an essay about the Green Party ("Die Grüne Macht. Wie die Ökopartei das Land verändern will", 2021), goes even further in his analysis. According to him, several circumstances will oblige the Green candidate to follow the course of action of today’s grand coalition. Baerbock’s policies will be conditioned by the need to reduce public deficits in the aftermath of the pandemic and her refusal to appear as a party of prohibition (Verbot-Partei). In this stalemate position, she would not be able to afford any significant break from German politics, except for a speed limit set at 130 km/h, stronger support for electromobility, an increase in the price of the ton of CO2 and a rise in unemployment benefits...Baerbock would remain pragmatic and reasonable, committed to the fight against climate change, the European Union, and refugees. "Annalena Baerbock embodies modern Germany like no other politician," writes Ulrich Schulte, "sympathetic, relaxed, fundamentally reasonable and people-oriented. But in no way radical or radically left-wing."
While representing relatively low stakes for the European Union, the outcome of the German elections on 26 September 2021 remains in suspense. The Green candidate Annalena Baerbock, the conservative Armin Laschet and even the current outsider, the social democrat Olaf Scholz, all have their chances to win. No one can say which coalition the party of the majority will be required to form, or who will get the post of vice-chancellor. However, since all three candidates are convinced pro-Europeans, the stakes for the EU remain relatively low. This situation is very different from the French presidential election of 2022. The candidates distinguish themselves more in their vision of the German engagement in Europe. Like Olaf Scholz, Annalena Baerbock could stand for a more active European diplomacy, a more political EU than the one of Merkel’s era. Especially in the likely event of a coalition with the conservatives, still attached to NATO and the American nuclear umbrella, she would need to take the edge off her ambitions. This would certainly go against her support for a European defense structure and the concept of a "powerful" Europe, which have been so ardently desired by France for many years.
Copyright: DAVID GANNON / AFP
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