Annalena Baerbock did a fiery christening in her new job. Within weeks of being sworn in, Germany’s first female foreign minister, just 41 years old, found herself in Moscow face to face with Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s top diplomat for the past 18 years, trying to break through the gunpowder depot in Ukraine.
Given the skepticism – and misogyny on social media – he has received since he was first nominated for the role, Baerbock’s reception by the German media has been substantially triumphant. Newspapers in various political circles praised her preparation and confidence in the person of one of the longest-serving politicians in the world.
“I thought it was good,” Wolfgang Schroeder, a political scientist at the University of Kassel, told DW. “It was a surprise that she did not make mistakes, that her tone was categorical but not too sharp.”
Schroeder also noted that Bayerbock’s handling of the crisis in Ukraine so far has given the impression that he is working closely with Chancellor Olaf Soltz of the Social Democrats, which cannot necessarily be taken for granted, since they belong to different parties. “No attempt was made to challenge the chancellor – instead, an attempt was made to find a common ground with the chancellor,” he said.
Friendly media, consistent performance
Hubert Kleinert, a professor of politics at the University of Applied Sciences in Hesse and a former member of the Bundestag of the Greens, is not surprised that Baerbock did well. “These are good conditions for early success,” he told DW. “She is a young woman who brings a certain element of vitality. She is a little different and I’m sure the images in the media help her.”
Again, note that doing well in the media is not the same as de-escalating the great power on the brink of war. “At the end of the day, it depends on what substance comes out of it. If something was achieved, I can not say,” Kleinert added cautiously.
Tradition of the green party
Experts may not have been so surprised that Baerbock had a principled attitude in her first appearances as foreign minister. He had already stressed the “value-driven foreign policy” he favored in last year’s election debate. As the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor, she did what many considered dynamic statements about China, Belarus, Hungary and Russia.
In addition, as Kleinert pointed out, “it has always been part of the Greens’ tradition to emphasize more strongly the ethical and human rights aspects.”
Indeed, the Greens have a tradition of appointing embarrassing foreign ministers. Baerbock’s most notable predecessor is Joschka Fischer, the Green veteran who started out as an anti-establishment protester and became Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s top diplomat in the late 1990s. the few US allies who openly challenged evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, ensuring that Germany did not participate in the 2003 US-led invasion.
The rise of Baerbock
Baerbock’s parents took her to anti-nuclear demonstrations in her youth in the 1980s, and in her personal website biography, she describes being “moved by global injustice” from her teenage years, which she claims sparked her first aspirations to become a journalist.
She studied political science and public law in Hamburg, earned a master’s degree in international law from the London School of Economics and then began her doctorate at the Free University of Berlin, which she interrupted in 2013 with her election to the Bundestag.
Her academic career went hand in hand with a sharp political rise. Having joined the Green Party at the age of 25, he became the party leader in the state of Brandenburg just four years later, while also acting as a representative of the party’s working group for European affairs and a member of the board of the European Green Party.
She continued this focus on European affairs in her first term in the Bundestag, claiming that she “worked hard to finally make the German government recognize its international responsibility as one of the world ‘s largest economies and to lead the German’ energy transition ‘. . ”. “
However, her focus has been on home affairs in her second term in the Bundestag, since 2017, when she focused on child poverty and single parents.
Difficult candidacy
Her triumphant procession continued in April 2021, when she won an internal struggle for the Greens’ power against her co-leader Robert Hubeck and became the party’s first candidate for chancellor in national elections.
That was when she ran into trouble: Almost as soon as her candidacy was announced, a negative press appeared, shattering the first hopes that the Greens could even challenge the two major German parties, the center-left Social Democrats and the center-right.
It was revealed in May that she had misrepresented her extra income to parliament – which she described as a “stupid mistake” – and a hastily written ghost book published in June 2021 was found to be full of plagiarism and poor commentary.
Although her appearances in the televised debate against incumbent Chancellor Olaf Soltz (SPD) and conservative candidate Armin Lasset (CDU) were hailed, her campaign never recovered and the Greens ended with a disappointing 14.8% in September. Under their previous agreement, it was her rival and co-leader, Robert Hubbek, who became vice chancellor in the new coalition government.
Rebound
But that chapter is over, and Baerbock has turned its attention to the challenges of its new office. Speaking to DW, Gustav Gressel of the Berlin-based European Council on External Relations (ECFR) said he did not see any particular weakness in the relative youth and inexperience of Baerbock. “Anyone who has gone so far in politics must have a certain toughness,” he said.
“I think a lot of this criticism is misplaced because electoral democracy just doesn’t work that way,” he added. “Ministers are not technocrats. They need to find and identify the people they can rely on in specific areas to work for them and with them.”
How Green Can a Green Foreign Minister Be?
Perhaps aware of the Greens’ criticism of environmentalist pressure groups such as Fridays for Future, Baerbock sought to sell its new pension as needed to combat the climate crisis: “We can address major domestic policy issues such as climate neutrality with a globalized world, “he told the public broadcaster ARD. “That’s why, for a strong climate policy, we need an active European and German international foreign policy.”
When confronted with countries like China that have generally blocked global climate deals, Baerbock argued that the key was not to pursue incredible global solutions, such as a global carbon tax, but to work bilaterally with countries ready to renew their industries. their. carbon neutral.
Ultimately, however, Gressel believes that Baerbock’s success will not be measured solely by what it says about “values” in foreign policy. The most important question, he said, was: “How willing is Germany to set up instruments for this purpose? For example, it has asked for a new fund for strategic infrastructure. This is the principle for dealing with the acquisition of infrastructure by China throughout “Especially in the EU neighborhood. You have to defend your values not only in words but also in money.”
Edited by: Rina Goldenberg
This text has been updated since its publication in late 2021.
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