The German Green Party selects Annalena Baerbock as its candidate

Annalena Baerbock has been selected as the Green Party’s candidate to be the next German chancellor, as the country prepares for this year’s elections where Angela Merkel will leave the political stage.

The popularity of the Greens has risen in recent years and polls now have them only a few percentage points away from Merkel’s CDU party, as more and more voters turn to climate-related issues.

Baerbock and Robert Habeck, co-directors of the party, appear to have united and disciplined members like no other leadership team had done. And the new goal is not just to be part of the government, but maybe even enter the chancellery later this year.

The emergence of the Green Party has coincided with its professionalism. It started as a protest movement and an opposition party. It was divided into a more conservative left and wing for many years. While that hasn’t completely changed, now the party is a veritable middle class platform.

Baerbock was born in 1980 near Hanover. He graduated from the London School of Economics in 2005 with a master’s degree in public international law. He has been a member of the party since 2005 and a member of the Bundestag since 2013.

During his political career, he has held various positions: he was a spokesman for climate change of the Green Parliamentary Group between 2013 and 2017 and an adjunct member of the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy. Some commentators compare his style and analytical approach to that of current German leader Merkel.

The Greens want to restructure Germany’s economic model into a social-ecological system. What does it mean? Clearly, the focus is on driving green technologies, getting out of coal energy by 2030 and banning vehicles with combustion engines from German roads by 2030. This is ambitious, as it is only nine years away.

German industry is already sounding the alarm: “The Greens want a different society,” the BDI said in a statement on March 19. “Restructuring society will be very expensive for the economy and society itself. We would need a much more pro-growth policy approach after the pandemic for Germany.”

But the Greens are no longer a party full of radicals, they have a plan in mind to fund their program. While the party’s program calls for easing the so-called debt brake that would allow Germany to raise more money in public markets, they are also calling for higher taxes on the rich.

In addition, they are pushing a € 500 billion fund over ten years to fund this climate transition.

“This is smart political marketing aimed at middle-class liberal voters,” Teneo’s Carsten Nickel said in a note last month.

The key question is what role the Greens will play in the next government, with elections scheduled for September. It only has external possibilities to enter the chancellery, but it is not entirely impossible.

If the CDU does not get a majority alongside another party, including the Greens, a possible SPD, Left and Green coalition could be formed in Berlin. And in that case, the next chancellor could be Baerbock.