Demonstrations take place outside, presentations take place inside. Outside, 400 demonstrators stand around the obelisk on Karolinenplatz with Ukrainian flags and hold up signs, among other things, as they exchange verbal blows with a small group whose placards are calling for the abolition of the Bundeswehr. Inside there is not a word about it; because when Annalena Baerbock, who invites 300 Munich residents for almost an hour and a half on Friday evening to think about the national security strategy to be developed by the government, the big and rather general questions are at stake. It’s always an art to combine the two in performances like this. The big with the small, the individual problem of a transport entrepreneur who will later bring Baerbock out of the otherwise pretty confident step, and the big problems that the 41-year-old Green politician is confronted with all over the world.
At the end of her Germany tour, on which she traveled eight days to the Amerikahaus and, according to the moderator, exactly 4111 kilometers, Baerbock now enters the hall and gets a long round of applause and the opportunity to make a first statement, in which she talks about the stops on the trip reports, including visits to the fire brigade and a medicines manufacturer. When it comes to developing a security strategy, everything is now connected to everything else. Then the question-and-answer game begins, which Baerbock completes flawlessly in terms of content.
Of course, the conditions are different than in an election campaign arena. It’s mainly fans that are present here, the average age of Munich visitors is almost a young 35, and the topic is given anyway, namely the core question, which Baerbock formulates again: “How can the citizens feel safe?”
She can do that, the big bow
The minister speaks so quickly that one sometimes has to wonder at what point between “the European house is under attack” and “I’m mainly out listening” she actually caught her breath.
She says, “Does it mean peace if the bombs don’t fall?” Or is it also about individual and social security, which would also include freedom of expression, democracy, energy and food security? Then it’s all about the gas. From their point of view, “the Russian president”, whom Baerbock does not name, is currently at war: to divide society. She can do that, the big bow.
But in such a format it is also about switching between the deliberately somewhat unapproachable sovereign appearance of a foreign minister and the approachable appearance of a normal 41-year-old from Hanover. Then there is still room for improvement. Her constant half-smile alone can be irritating even if it’s stuck on her face for minutes.
Baerbock’s employees interviewed 40 citizens in workshops and made them think about what is important in such a security strategy, and when some of the citizens presented their results, which can be found between values, diplomacy and military action, Baerbock nodded a lot. It’s not entirely clear if that’s an “I understand” nod or more of a “That’s right” nod.
“I felt what 50 degrees means”
Then again, the minister scores points when she reports on her experiences abroad. You can talk a lot about the danger of climate change, but when Baerbock talks about her visit to Niger “where I felt what 50 degrees means” and nothing can be cultivated anymore, which also increases social tensions, it still shines better one. Whether she is reporting on the difficulties with Turkey or dealing with the government in Mali, the number of nods in the room is highest when it comes to specific examples.
And there is even laughter when the results of a working group are not immediately visible on the projectors, says Baerbock about a visit to the software company SAP. Even these professionals are not immune to mishaps, and during a presentation all of a sudden only “Error” could be read on the screens.
During the open question and answer session at the end, Baerbock listens to a Bavarian transport company, who reports on the difficulties with the aid deliveries on the Polish-Ukrainian border and the long waiting times in both directions. The minister asks, then she simply talks even faster about the agreements made with the Ukraine aid and asks the young man for a personal exchange afterwards. Talking about it quickly in general is also a solution if you don’t have a good answer at the moment.
At the end, however, Baerbock uses all the content-related ingredients elegantly for a conclusion. The sometimes controversial discussions in the working groups, the various questions raised in the evening and, above all, the major current crises have always shown that in the event of disputes and differences of opinion, especially in difficult situations, a lot is possible and can be moved, completely against “the Russian Narrative: We can blackmail you with gas so that you are no longer able to act”. She simply calls such situations “a momentum” that you then have to seize. And with this the listeners leave the hall.