Bundestag election campaign: Candidacy for chancellor: Habeck is wooing his voters

With an appeal for solidarity and a clear stance against populism, Robert Habeck wants to lead the Greens into the federal election campaign as candidate for chancellor. “I’m running as a candidate from the Greens – for the people of Germany,” says the Vice Chancellor and Economics Minister in a video shared on social media – just two days after the coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP broke. Habeck also announced his candidacy in an email to his party friends.

“I’m ready to offer my experience, my strength and my responsibility. If you want, even as chancellor. But that’s not mine, that’s your decision. Only you can decide that,” says Habeck, who, according to his own statements, is in the Movie sitting at friends’ kitchen table.

The election for the top man of the Greens is planned for the federal party conference of the Greens, which begins on Friday next week in Wiesbaden. There Habeck will seek the support of the delegates in order to start the election campaign with a tailwind.

Since the day before, Habeck has been present again as a party politician on social media, where he has already placed hints about the time of his candidacy. Most recently he appeared there as Federal Minister of Economics, with accounts that were maintained by the house’s employees. He is not allowed to use these state resources for the election campaign for the Greens. In a video he hummed the melody of Grönemeyer’s hit “Time for something to turn.” The Greens were promptly banned from using the song by the author – like the CDU before them.

In his application video, Habeck warns of the “divisive fungus of populism.” “We must not assume that our liberal democracy is guaranteed forever. We have to fight for and for it. And this fight is not at some point, it is now.” He wants to stand up for a society that combines energy and solidarity.

Habeck hopes for the middle

Habeck stands for a Realo course and hopes to win over voters from the center. As Vice Chancellor, he helped negotiate compromises that were offended by the left wing of his party – for example, tightening migration policy. However, Habeck cannot go too far as a candidate with the distinction from his own party, with which he has repeatedly flirted – after all, voters still tick one party.

His internal critics also know that Habeck is one of the party’s driving forces, albeit a somewhat damaged one after several years as minister (keyword: heating law). “I made mistakes. I learn from them every day, like we all learn,” Habeck now promises.

In the speech duel with CDU leader Friedrich Merz and SPD leader Olaf Scholz (SPD), he is likely to score points with his charisma. However, Habeck’s love of spontaneous speech carries risks: he hits the wrong note or gets the facts wrong.

Tandem Habeck-Baerbock should go into the election campaign

The personality has been an open secret for a long time. In July, Habeck’s only serious competitor, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, declared that she did not want to pursue a candidacy for chancellor.

The relationship between Baerbock and Habeck is not untroubled after she defeated him as the Greens’ candidate for chancellor in 2021. In the upcoming new federal election campaign, both want to pull together.

Difficult starting point and principle of hope

Habeck’s chances of actually moving into the Chancellery are currently slim. In surveys, his party is currently at a measly 9 to 11 percent. At this point, the Greens like to point to the SPD’s poll numbers, which are only a few percentage points better, and are also sending a candidate for chancellor into the race.

A reaction from his former government partner, FDP leader Christian Lindner, followed promptly: “It’s crazy. No majority of our own, but now two candidates for chancellor in the government,” wrote the finance minister, who was fired by Chancellor Scholz, on Platform X.

Union Chancellor candidate Merz has also reacted mockingly. “The self-declaration as candidate for chancellor with nine percent voter approval definitely has a humorous element,” said the Union faction and CDU party leader. The Greens would then have to “work this out with themselves and their voters,” he added.

Habeck says in the video: “Of course, I know the polls. I know that the traffic light government failed. I know that trust has been destroyed.” And: “I know that you have to earn a claim to leadership. I want to earn it.”

Praise came from his party colleague Franziska Brantner, who is parliamentary state secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and is considered a promising candidate for the party leadership. In times of great uncertainty, he provides “support and orientation, honestly and with a clear compass. Where others polarize and divide, insist on political differences, he looks for similarities and brings people together.” Brantner is a close confidante of Habeck.

Habeck blames Groko for the reform backlog

Habeck is dragging along the poor economic situation in Germany like a burden on his leg. He himself explains the situation, among other things, with the loss of Russian energy imports as a result of the war of aggression against Ukraine and the delay in reforms by the previous governments. “We mustn’t allow ourselves to be lulled, as was the case in the years of government of the CDU/CSU and SPD, where in fact everything was left behind and nothing was done. We now have to laboriously make up for all of this,” says Habeck in his video, shortly after he explains the necessity of investments in infrastructure and education and the importance of climate protection. He does not present detailed demands or suggestions.

Habeck outlined how he imagines the federal election campaign at the end of August at a campaign appearance in Saxony, where his party suffered heavy losses a few days later and managed to get back into the state parliament with a lot of trouble. Habeck believes in the possibility of a mood change for the better. “And there just has to come some crystallization point where we prove to ourselves that we are much, much better in Germany than the mood and the surveys show at the moment. If that happens, then anything can really happen,” he said at the time .

Invitation to the kitchen table

But first, Habeck says he wants to listen, as he says in the video. “What concerns you in your everyday life, what matters to you. Maybe I’ll come up with ideas that I would never have otherwise.” Maybe we could talk at the kitchen table. “In any case, I think it would be nice if you invited me, and whenever time allows, I incorporate kitchen table conversations into my everyday life before the election campaign really gets going.”