Federal election
Annalena Baerbock does not rule out candidacy for chancellor
Annalena Baerbock warns against endangering the traffic light coalition because of the budget dispute
© Sabina Crisan / DPA
Annalena Baerbock was the Greens’ candidate for chancellor in 2021. In an interview, she suggested that Robert Habeck was not the only candidate for chancellor for the Greens again. Baerbock also warned against the dissolution of the traffic light coalition.
She has great confidence in the three-way group consisting of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) to agree on a draft budget for the coming year by July 3, as planned.
One point of contention in the budget negotiations is the debt brake, which Lindner is sticking to but which the SPD and the Greens want to handle more flexibly.
Baerbock: “What greater emergency could there be than this war in the middle of Europe?”
The debt brake could be suspended by emergency resolution, as was already the case during the Corona pandemic. Baerbock believes that the conditions are met now. “What greater emergency could there be than this war in the middle of Europe?” asked the Foreign Minister. “It would be fatal to have to say in a few years: We saved the debt brake, but lost Ukraine and the European peace order.”
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When asked about the Greens’ candidacy for chancellor and the fact that Habeck was considered the favorite, Baerbock said: “As foreign minister, I learned that anything is possible.” At the same time, she stressed that her job and that of the economics minister was “to solve the acute problems, not to conduct public personnel debates.” When asked about the poor result in the European elections with a view to a candidacy for chancellor, the politician said that a lot could change in a few months. In 2021, Baerbock was already the Greens’ candidate for chancellor.