The federal manager of the Greens, Michael Kellner, has admitted deficiencies in the previous election campaign of the Greens.

"Mistakes were made, that's obvious," said Kellner to the news magazine "Spiegel".

Especially in tough political disputes, it is important to be “self-critical, to pause and check where you stand”.

Regarding the plagiarism allegations against Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock, Kellner said: “Criticism is always legitimate, also here.” Nevertheless, “measured against the challenges of our time”, these are small things.

The federal managing director defended the violent reaction of the Greens to the allegations surrounding Baerbock's book.

"After all the hostility of the previous weeks, we wanted to give a stop signal."

"We will be aggressive"

According to Kellner, the party wants to get back on the offensive in the coming weeks.

"We will be aggressive and defend ourselves where necessary, but not be aggressive or disrespectful." The Greens election campaign leader accused the Union of "distracting from the content and the crucial questions of our time" and to hide away.

Kellner also sharply criticized the recently presented CDU campaign: "You can see a Germany from the day before yesterday, the image of a society without any diversity." The CDU is stuck in the 20th century. Dealing with the statements of the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and CDU direct candidate Hans-Georg Maaßen is also dangerous: “The Union does not close the gates to the far right tightly enough. If you choose Laschet, you also choose Maaßen. The Union obviously lacks a compass. "

The Greens currently have to defend themselves against allegations that parts of Baerbock's book “Jetzt. How we renew our country ”has been taken from other sources. The Greens spoke of attempted character assassination, but Baerbock is now also adopting a self-critical tone. It would have "certainly been better if I had worked with a list of sources," she told the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday.