The Green Party of Germany elects Annalena Baerbock as candidate

Annalena Baerbock has been chosen as a candidate for the Green Party to become the next German chancellor, as the country will hold elections this year where Angela Merkel will leave the political stage.

The Greens’ popularity has increased in recent years and polls now have it just a few percentage points behind Merkel’s CDU party, as more and more voters use climate-related topics.

Baerbock and Robert Habeck, party co-leaders, seem to have united and disciplined members like no other leadership team has done before. And the new goal is not just to be part of the government, but maybe even enter the chancellor later this year.

The advent of the Green Party coincided with its professionalization. It started as a protest movement and an opposition party. It was for years divided into a left and a more conservative wing. Although not completely changed, the party is now a true middle class platform.

Baerbock was born in 1980 near Hanover. She studied at the London School of Economics in 2005 with a master’s degree in Public Law. She has been a member of the party since 2005 and a member of the Bundestag since 2013.

During her political career, she served in various roles: between 2013 and 2017, she was spokesperson for climate change of the Green Parliamentary Group and deputy member of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy. Some commentators compare her style and analytical approach to that of current German leader Merkel.

The Greens want to restructure Germany’s economic model into a socio-ecological system. What does it mean? The focus is apparently on the shift of green technologies, the extraction of coal energy by 2030 and the ban on cars with internal combustion engines by German roads by 2030. This is ambitious as it is only nine years old.

German industry is already ringing the alarm bells: ‘The greens want a different society’, the BDI said in a statement on March 19. ‘The restructuring of society will be very costly for the economy and society itself. much more growth-friendly policy approach to the pandemic for Germany. ‘

But the Greens are no longer a party full of radicals, they have a plan to fund their program. While the party program calls for the relaxation of the so-called debt brake that will enable Germany to raise more money in public markets, they are also calling for higher taxes on the rich.

In addition, they are working for a fund of 500 billion euros over ten years to finance this climate transition.

“This is smart political marketing aimed at liberal middle-class voters,” Carsten Nickel of Teneo said in a note last month.

The key question is what role the Greens will play in the next government, with elections taking place in September. It’s just an outside chance that it’s going to the chancellor, but that’s not entirely impossible.

If the CDU does not gain a majority with another party, including the Greens, a possible SPD, Left and Green coalition could emerge in Berlin. And in that case, Baerbock could be the next chancellor.