Schleswig-Holstein: Greens choose Robert Habeck in second place on the list

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Of course they chose him.

In second place on the Schleswig-Holstein state list.

Robert Habeck, it has been clear since this Saturday, will move into the Bundestag for the first time in autumn.

He received 107 of 122 votes cast at the first virtual assembly of delegates of the North Greens, three fewer than Luise Amtsberg from Kiel, who will top the list.

So 88 percent for Habeck, without an opposing candidate.

A passable result, no triumph, no really strong tailwind from the north for the 50-year-old federal chairman.

Big applause and cheers, as is customary at presence party conferences, do not occur in these low-contact times anyway.

Habeck could have used such encouragement.

A green chancellor seems possible

Things are gradually getting serious these days for the Greens, for Habeck, and not just in Schleswig-Holstein.

The pandemic management of the coalition of the Union and the SPD, which is increasingly perceived as unsuccessful, as well as the corruption affairs of the CDU and CSU have led to the fact that the idea that the currently smallest party in the Bundestag could appoint the Chancellor after the election in autumn no longer exists seems completely absurd.

Robert Habeck State party conference of the Greens in Schleswig-Holstein

Source: pa / dpa / Frank Molter

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The political barometer of the research group Elections has just extrapolated the result of the Greens expected for autumn to 24 percent of the votes.

They are only four percentage points behind the tumbling Union and nine points ahead of the SPD.

A traffic light coalition under green leadership is moving into the realm of possibility for Habeck's party, as is a green-black alliance such as a green Federal Chancellor.

Or maybe a green Chancellor after all?

Robert Habeck, he has left no doubt about that since moving to federal politics, is aiming for this office.

It was his strategy, his charisma, his soaring that the Greens, who had been knocked off in 2017, overtook the SPD in autumn 2018 and moved closer to the Union.

In his introductory speech, which he addressed to the delegates on the home screens from a rather lonely lectern in the Kiel Science Center on Saturday morning, he underlined this claim once again.

The speech is nowhere about what he wants to achieve as a member of the Bundestag for Schleswig-Holstein or his own party.

Instead, as is customary at Habeck, it's about the big picture.

The women's council asks the crucial question

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About Germany's future after the pandemic, about European cohesion, about social justice, about education, about a gigantic investment program.

About tax evasion, about turning away from Hartz IV, about the relationship with China, about global climate protection, of course, and about the consequences of the ecological transformation for social cohesion.

In addition, there are attacks on the Union, an attack on the SPD - the very big political arc in just under eight minutes of speaking time.

But none of that interests the Federal Women's Council of the Greens this Saturday.

The committee, which coordinates the women's political work of the federal party, the parliamentary groups and state associations of the Greens, has formulated a question for the co-federal chairman especially for the list of the Schleswig-Holstein state association, which the conference presidium reads out immediately after his speech: "Why", the green women ask the party leader, “are you still sticking to the option of becoming the Greens' candidate for chancellor?” The party finally has in Annalena Baerbock “a convincing top candidate for a green chancellor”.

The unconcerning tone in which the Women's Council Habeck in Kiel suggests withdrawing, at least for a moment, lifts the otherwise dense curtain of harmony and agreement that the Greens have so carefully draped over the chancellor candidate, which is supposedly insignificant for the election success: internal question.

In reality, the fronts between the Baerbock and Habeck camps have long since hardened.

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The latter may at best support its favorite behind closed doors.

A public commitment for Robert Habeck, for example by the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann, is out of the question.

Old white man supports middle-aged white men - that could quickly backfire with the gender-sensitive Greens.

In Kiel, too, Habeck is on his own.

Even up here, in his old homeland, no one from the green management team explicitly wants to back the former Schleswig-Holstein environment minister as a future candidate for chancellor.

Country boss Ann-Kathrin Tranziska reported on request from WELT about Habeck's “higher approval rates” in the surveys, but at the same time pointed out that there was enough time “to make Annalena Baerbock even better known”.

According to Tranziska, the Schleswig-Holstein Greens would be “somewhat relaxed” about the decision on the top candidate.

Basically, the race for the green candidate for chancellor could have long been over.

Annalena Baerbock has resolutely, almost ruthlessly used the communication errors that Habeck has made over and over again in the past two years and, with a mixture of ambition, quick-wittedness and chutzpah, has pushed herself so much into the foreground that she has the first right of access to the The green top position and the possible successor to Angela Merkel is no longer due to the feminist tradition of her party alone.

Accordingly, the Brandenburg woman leaves little doubt that she also wants to exercise this right - anything else, a waiver, as Baerbock has publicly put it several times over the past few days, would be a “little prick in the heart” for her.

And who stabs themselves in the heart?

Habeck has not given up yet

Robert Habeck, however, does not allow himself to be lured out of reserve this Saturday.

“Allow me”, he asks the state delegates, with a view to the barely concealed call to withdraw from the Green Women's Council, “that I will not answer this question today”.

He and Baerbock would clarify the top candidacy for the federal election "in intimate discussions".

Talking machine.

However, he has not yet completely given up his goal.

At the end of his introductory speech, Habeck at least hinted at his ambitions again.

“Leadership,” he says, possibly deliberately differentiating it from Baerbock, “doesn't mean me, me, me to shout.

It doesn't mean always wanting to be the first.

It doesn't mean that you can do everything better yourself.

It means awakening the best, the most creative, the strongest and the bravest in others - and growing them up. ”In view of the history of the two potential green candidates for chancellor: inside, this is almost a declaration of war.