Berlin (dpa) – Baden-Württemberg’s Green Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann has given his party courage after the start problems in the federal election campaign. “We no longer claim to be just an ecological or social corrective. We are running to lead Germany and to give politics the direction, ”said the Green politician on Sunday in a recorded message to the delegates of a digital federal party conference.
Since the Greens are now clearly striving for this role in the federal government for the first time, the Union and the SPD have now declared them their main opponents. “That is why they are using all means – whether honest or not,” said Kretschmann. The past few weeks would have shown that. “Inaccuracies in Annalena’s curriculum vitae are exaggerated, failure to report income as federal chairwoman is declared a state affair and the number of amendments at our party congress is close to a vote of no confidence.”
On social media, “a dangerous mixture of facts and falsehoods is created,” he added. Even if some of these attacks are “shabby” and difficult to endure, this “outrage spectacle” shows above all: “It scares some people that we Greens have repositioned ourselves and are thus successful.”
The Greens had confirmed the party leader Annalena Baerbock on Saturday with around 98.5 percent as a candidate for chancellor. With the same vote, 678 of 688 online delegates confirmed the role of Baerbock and co-party leader Robert Habeck as the top election duo.
After Baerbock’s nomination in April, the Greens initially enjoyed a high poll. But then their own mistakes weighed on the Greens. First it became known that Baerbock had subsequently reported special payments to the Bundestag. Then there was criticism because she and her party had to correct misleading information in Baerbock’s curriculum vitae several times. Habeck caused confusion with demands for the delivery of “defensive weapons” to Ukraine. In polls, the Greens crashed, while the Union, as the front runner, was able to widen the gap. Kretschmann encouraged Baerbock. He said: “I’m sure you will do it.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210613-99-972420 / 2
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