Election campaign of the Greens: a lot of green, few candidate

For the first time, the Greens are going into the federal election campaign with a candidate for Chancellor – but they are not explicitly presented. Baerbock can be seen on a number of election posters – but as one of many.

It was mid-April when the Greens co-chairman Robert Habeck announced, bursting with self-confidence: “We are fighting for the Chancellery.” A few weeks and several mistakes and misconduct later, it sounds a little different with Federal Managing Director Michael Kellner. The Greens are the underdog in the fight for the Chancellery, he emphasized when presenting the election campaign.

One might think that modesty has returned to the Green Party headquarters. Nobody shakes the fence of the Chancellery in these July days, even if Annalena Baerbock still wants to get in there. But now she’s on vacation first.

Baerbock is not the focus

The Chancellor candidate of the Greens is not the focus of the campaign, and no poster advertises her as Merkel’s successor. Rather, she is one of many, along with Habeck and numerous unknown faces, who are doing green campaigns on a green background. There is no poster showing her as a candidate for chancellor. Does that mean that the Greens are moving away from Baerbock – or do they want to take them out of the line of fire?

Although the CDU has not presented a poster on which Armin Laschet is touted as Chancellor, the Greens are looking differently these days. And so the rumors persist that Habeck could take over the candidacy for chancellor, even if the federal manager waves away and emphasizes that the election campaign is teamwork.

We are a strong duo for this federal election, with Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, and of course a campaign and dramaturgy like this also means increasing the number of personnel in the end.

At this point, “increasing the number of people”, probably means calling for the election of women chancellors – possibly in late summer. Waiter does not commit himself. He’ll probably want to wait and see how things develop in the next few weeks. Then maybe there will be a candidate for Chancellor Baerbock on the posters. Wait. Even the SPD has not yet advertised with a slogan like “choose Olaf”.

Digitization, fair wages, climate protection

As usual, the Greens rely entirely on green in their campaign. On green ground it’s about digitization, fair wages, a strong Europe and of course climate protection. On a poster on which Baerbock can be seen alone, it says in large letters: “Economy and climate without crisis”. It is the poster with which most of the green district associations want to advertise, says Kellner: “The party is highly mobilized.”

And the party grew too. To 117,000 members now, that’s almost twice as many as four years ago. But still far less than with the SPD and CDU.

Kellner refers to the main motive of the green campaign: “Our country can do more if you let it,” you can read on it. For Kellner it is “an answer to 16 years of government of the Union”. Not a word from him today about the fact that the SPD has co-ruled in twelve of these 16 years. She is just the preferred coalition partner of the Greens.

The Greens would rather give other answers. They read: “New beginning” and “New beginnings” – and green politics with a candidate who is currently looking for relaxation on vacation in order to then make a new attempt – at the Chancellery.