The expectations were immense.

After the problems of the past few weeks, irregularities in secondary earnings, revelations about mistakes in the résumé and a disappointing election result in Saxony-Anhalt, the Greens wanted to turn the mood back in their favor at their party congress.

Until Saturday afternoon everything went at least accident-free: amendments from the base, which would have shifted the program significantly to the left, have so far not found a majority among the delegates.

The top duo Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck were confirmed with 98.5 percent of the vote.

There was no separate election of the candidate for chancellor - so there was no way to compare the results.

Helene Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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    Baerbock's speech was to be the highlight of the day.

    The candidate for chancellor began by admitting her own mistakes.

    "Robert, knowing you by my side gave me strength," said Baerbock and for a moment they thought her voice was broken.

    The day before, Habeck had called for solidarity among the Greens, "to go through thick and thin with serenity and strength".

    "Jobs will be lost"

    In her 40-minute speech, Baerbock described the broad lines of possible green government participation in the federal government. Change is necessary to create stability and security, that was the leitmotif of the speech. The fight against the climate crisis is forcing changes. The prosperity of the twentieth century was built on steel, oil and gas, but the century is over. “The future is climate neutral,” said Baerbock. The question is not whether that will happen, but who is best to tackle the challenge. Baerbock accused the grand coalition of speaking of change, but if it were to become concrete, to be against it. In the last few years, government policy in Germany has been on autopilot, "says Baerbock, adding that politics was what seemed feasible.

    The Chancellor candidate spoke of the fact that "real change is in the air" now. Baerbock described the upheavals: the time after the Second World War, the peaceful revolution in the GDR. That was always “a risk, a risk”, “we went step by step because people dared something”. That is also necessary now: “I stand up for the confidence that it can be better. This is exactly what this federal election is about. "

    Baerbock explicitly turned to people outside the green milieu: “To serve the good of all - that is our compass.” When she says “we”, it is not just the members of her own party that are meant, but “by 'we' I mean every citizen ”.

    The election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the Greens only won 5.9 percent last Sunday, had made it clear to the party that their issues, especially the fight against climate change, were not so in the east and in the country Arrived well.

    All subjects addressed

    Baerbock told her own story: she grew up on the “flat land between sugar beets”, and at the age of 18 the car was “great freedom” for her. "I take people's concerns about change very seriously," said Baerbock. She admitted that the Greens' plans not only meant that gasoline prices would rise, but that some jobs would also be lost. It is the task of politics to shape climate change socially. But it cannot be that other parties always remember when it comes to climate protection that there are socially disadvantaged people in this country, so Baerbock.