Annalena Baerbock and her strange self-aggrandizement (Opinion)

Opinion

Annalena Baerbock wants… For many people, this simple sentence is absolutely non-news. Annalena Baerbock said it anyway. And breaking news was sent out anyway.

Why actually?

Even with a historic distance, it is difficult to claim that her last candidacy was particularly successful. In the five months between her nomination as the Greens’ first candidate for chancellor and the federal election, she almost halved her party’s rating – from 28 percent in April polls to 14.8 percent in the election result. In between there were a few slip-up appearances, a pimped-up CV, a hastily copied book (which was actually intended as an ID for higher positions) and, above all, abysmal crisis management. Third place was at least enough to make her foreign minister.

Why at the NATO summit?

As such, Baerbock is currently in Washington, where the leaders of NATO states are meeting for the 75th anniversary, where the future of the defense alliance, war and peace in Europe and the world, and the fitness of the leader of the free world, Joe Biden, are at stake. What is not at stake is the top candidacy for a German 11 percent party in an election that is due to take place in over a year.

Why did Baerbock have to announce her decision to the world there of all places, in a TV interview with CNN? She could have simply moderated the long, drawn-out question from reporter legend Christiane Amanpour about whether she wanted to run for the office of German Chancellor again. Just as she and all the other Greens have done with great routine in recent months: … not the moment … discuss together … in due course … end of announcement.

The fact that Baerbock did exactly the opposite – consciously, also in terms of time and place – that she had to share this news with virtually the entire world, seems at least vain. Like a strange self-aggrandizement.

Annalena Baerbock has no time to run for chancellor

This suspicion is confirmed even as one listens to her explanation. Because, as she explains in fluent English, in these “extreme times of state political responsibility,” it means for her as Foreign Minister: “Instead of being tied up in a candidacy for chancellor, I continue to devote my energy fully to my task of building trust, cooperation and reliable structures – for and with so many partners worldwide and in Europe who rely on them.”

In other words: I just have to save the world quickly. I don’t have time for such mundane things as running for chancellor.

Others can now take over, people whose job is not quite as important as theirs. People who have always wanted to do this, who have repeatedly and more loudly brought themselves into play in recent months so that they can at least get involved in the media debate about who will be the chancellor. The generous Ms Baerbock is certainly happy to help now and again. When time permits.