In the middle of the Ukraine crisis, Annalena Baerbock drives to the front between government troops and separatists. There was a lot of praise for her visit – but one commentator did not seem to like the Foreign Minister’s assignment.
On Tuesday, Annalena Baerbock visited the so-called contact line on the south-eastern border between Ukraine and Russia. The Foreign Minister was deeply shocked by the situation in the crisis area in eastern Ukraine. “(…) you can feel what happened years ago. That people lost everything they had from one day to the next,” she told journalists. She comes back from her stay with “very depressing feelings”.
The “Tagesspiegel” editor Christoph von Marschall then commented on Baerbock’s facial expression. “This picture is really a bit revealing,” said the journalist on Wednesday morning about a photo showing the Green politician with a bulletproof vest, military helmet and FFP2 mask at the front. “You can clearly see that this young lady, who is our foreign minister, doesn’t feel particularly comfortable in this situation.”
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Outraged reactions to “young lady” comment
Marschall promptly received a shit storm online for his statement. Especially on Twitter, many were angry about the disrespectful designation of Baerbock as a “young lady”. Under the trending hashtag “diesjungedame” the wrote: “Taking the example of Baerbock and its title by one of the chief correspondents of the daily mirror By the way, as #diesjungedame you see again how sensitive the patriarchy reacts when (young) women take up space in so-called ‘male domains’.”
Many of her traffic light colleagues also sided with the Foreign Minister: “You are of course welcome to call me a young lady. Otherwise, I would like to express my respect for @ABaerbock for her work and those who think the Foreign Minister’s work in cloudy interviews is based on her feel-good status to have to explain, recommend airing it out vigorously,” she tweeted.
Dunja Hayali, the moderator of the “Morgenmagazin” also said on Twitter: “In the press review, we invite colleagues to hear their comments. Unlike politicians/experts, we don’t usually contradict here. ” However, she later spoke to von Marschall about calling Baerbock a “young lady,” Hayali wrote, sharing a screenshot of an SMS conversation with the journalist, in which he expressed regret at the wording: “I’m sorry, if my wording has given rise to misunderstandings.”
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Baerbock himself has not yet commented on the cause. It is not the first time that the politician has been treated differently from male colleagues because of her age and gender. she had to endure questions about the compatibility of family and career, while her competitors at the time, Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz, were asked nothing of the sort.
Rising poll numbers and diplomatic success for Baerbock
One thing is certain: the Foreign Minister’s visit to the front left a lasting impression. According to a recent report, the majority of Germans are critical of the way the federal government is handling the Ukraine crisis – 23 percent are satisfied with it, 67 percent are not – the government representative who is most noticed by the citizens is the foreign minister herself. In the past few weeks, 50 percent of those surveyed perceived Baerbock most frequently, putting it well ahead of the Chancellor of the SPD, Olaf Scholz (45 percent).
According to Manfred Güllner, head of the opinion research institute Forsa, a similar development seems to be in the offing at Baerbock as in 1998 with the then Greens foreign minister Joschka Fischer: “First most said he shouldn’t become foreign minister, but when he was one, they found him quickly very good in office. There are signs of something similar with Baerbock: the reservations against them have already clearly disappeared.”
Even more important for the foreign minister than her rising poll numbers are the noticeable consequences of her diplomatic efforts. Her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba sees initial successes here. “The diplomacy works and is slowing down Russia’s aggressive intentions,” said the 40-year-old on Ukrainian television on Wednesday.
With the visits of Western heads of state and government in recent days, Kiev has become the center of international politics, and Russia is now aware of the consequences of an attack on Ukraine. Baerbock himself had already traveled to Kiev twice and to Moscow once. Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit both capitals next week.
Sources: “”, , , with DPA material
Source: Stern
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