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German top diplomat Baerbock to forgo second chancellor run

July 11, 2024

Annalena Baerbock said she would not represent her Green Party as its top candidate in federal elections next year. The Greens saw their support tumble during a recent European Parliament vote.

https://p.dw.com/p/4i8He
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock
Baerbock said the current climate calls for more diplomacy, not lessImage: dts-Agentur/picture alliance

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said late on Wednesday that she doesn't plan to run for chancellor again in 2025. In televised remarks, she said her "political responsibility" now was to focus on crises, not an election campaign.

She told US broadcaster CNN she would "continue to use all my energy as foreign minister" to build trust and cooperation, "because so many partners around the world and in Europe count on that."

'The world is totally different'

Baerbock became her environmentalist Green Party's first-ever candidate for chancellor in 2021, leading them to a historic result of 14.7% of the vote. Following this success, the Greens entered a governing federal coalition with the center-left Social Democrats and neoliberal Free Democrats.

"Obviously, the world is a totally different one than at the last German national elections," she said on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Washington, citing the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East and the need for "more diplomacy, not less."

Baerbock added, however, that "obviously, in election times, I will do everything to support my own party, like I did in the past."

It is widely expected that Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck will run as the Green candidate in 2025. However, after EU elections in June saw party support dip to 11.9%, lower than the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), it looks unlikely that Germany will have a Green chancellor next year.

es/sms (AFP, AP, DPA, Reuters)

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