At the beginning of the ZDF program “Klartext”, Annalena Baerbock does not use the word Chancellor and evades the first warm-up question: Yes, she is still playing for victory, it is a question of whether or not there will be a “real departure” with the Greens not.

The Greens are in the opinion polls between 15 and 17 percent, the competence ascriptions for the SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz have been better for weeks than those for the Green Chancellor candidate Baerbock.

With the Greens, therefore, the discussion has quietly started as to how the first candidate for chancellor in the party's history could actually gamble away the 28 percent and the real prospect of the Chancellery, why she made her own claim that the eco-party was the leading party of the center-left make, in this federal election campaign has not done justice.

Rudiger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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These questions do not play a role in the ZDF broadcast, but Peter Frey and Bettina Schausten succeed in subjecting the key promises of the green election program to a tough practical test.

Annalena Baerbock rarely gets the chance to withdraw from the confessions and sentence modules that are well known from her election campaign appearances; she has to be specific and does not look good - at least with some answers, but can also give convincing answers to many questions.

At the beginning she is asked by a presumably conventional farmer how she intends to stop the import of cheap food from China and Brazil.

“By strengthening regional and organic products from the region,” Baerbock replies first and then reports on discussions with dairy farmers in Baden-Württemberg.

But then won't anyone buy the cheap soups from China anymore?

The farmer is not convinced.

And when she is asked about the milk price, the green candidate for chancellor misjudges: she suspects 50 cents.

“It's 31 cents,” replies the farmer.

On the other hand, Baerbock's proposal to finally label meat products from regional production consistently and consistently met with approval.

As realistic as Laschet or Scholz

The topic of climate protection is one of the most important in this election campaign, for the Greens it is the most important: The moderators confront the Green politician with the view of a citizen from Upper Lusatia, where the coal industry is still an important branch of the economy. “Only two percent is the share that Germany has in man-made CO2 emissions in the world,” says the man. Baerbock replies as realistically as Armin Laschet or Olaf Scholz: Germany could not save the world climate with a contribution of two percent, but the European Union and the United States are together the second largest emitters in the world, which is why a transatlantic climate alliance is necessary. When asked by Peter Frey,Just as the Greens wanted to cushion the exit from the coal industry in Upper Lusatia, which took place six years earlier, Baerbock then only thinks of expanding tourism.

Then comes the sensitive issue of gasoline price increases - in connection with social justice.

A citizen of Lake Constance asks how he should get to work with fuel prices of 1.80 euros and a poorly developed local transport network.

“We want to increase the 16 cents over the next few years, there should be a purchase price premium of 9,000 euros for e-cars, and we have to expand local public transport,” replies Baerbock.

Debate about gender

The longer and more variedly the green candidate for chancellor is asked, the clearer it becomes that the green transformation of the economy will cost a lot of money.

The moderators do not address the financing opportunities and the already very high national debt, and of course the candidate also circumvents the tricky point.

Baerbock cleverly parries the accusation of a woman from East Germany that the Greens talk a lot about gender and quotas, but that they do little for equality. “Equal pay for equal work should be a matter of course. We have an 18 percent wage difference, ”replies Baerbock. She wants to change that. And then it moves the debate about gender where it belongs in the opinion of many citizens, but not all Greens: “Gender is not the big political issue, it is a matter of decency and courtesy that people are addressed in this way how they define their own gender. "

In the end, it's about the pension.

A citizen reports that after 45 years of working as a locksmith he has to live on a pension of 728 euros, that the gasoline price increases would reduce his quality of life even more in the future: "They can't live off of that," says Baerbock and suggests a guaranteed pension of 1200 euros - how this should be financed remains open.

At the very end, the moderators asked the 40-year-old candidate for chancellor whether she was actually a vegan or a vegetarian.

Baberbock denies both questions and wisely refrains from justifying himself for them, even though such lifestyle issues are taken very seriously in her party.


She does not answer the question of whether she would trust Olaf Scholz or Armin Laschet more in a possible government. After 90 minutes of public discussion on ZDF, Baerbock seems to have really enjoyed the idea of ​​becoming Federal Chancellor: “If we want a real departure, then it is only possible with a green government.” And a Chancellor Annalena Baerbock.