Germany’s Habeck signals he’ll run for chancellor

BERLIN — German Economy Minister Robert Habeck gave the strongest signal yet that he plans to run for chancellor as the Greens’ candidate in an interview with POLITICO.
“I would like to take on the responsibility,” Habeck said on the Berlin Playbook podcast.
Habeck has long been considered a Greens’ likely chancellor candidate for the federal election in 2025. His candidacy appeared to become far more likely in July, after Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock took herself out of the running during an interview with CNN, saying her primary responsibility will remain diplomacy.
For Habeck, the chancellor question may be largely academic. The Greens suffered a humiliating drubbing in the European election in June and have seen their popularity erode since the last federal election in 2021. Speaking with POLITICO, Habeck admitted a comeback would be difficult, comparing the Greens to a soccer club fighting back from a 4-0 deficit.
Renewed infighting within Germany’s tripartite ruling coalition over a series of issues from the budget to welfare certainly hasn’t helped matters for the Greens in recent weeks. Germany’s coalition — which consists of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) — has been at loggerheads, particularly after FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner earlier this month publicly cast doubt on a draft budget agreement for 2025 that leaders of the coalition parties had forged after an all-night round of negotiations.
Since then, FDP politicians have made a series of proposals that appear to have been aimed at irritating the environmentally-friendly Greens, including proposals to make cities more car-friendly and to make parking cheaper. FDP politicians have also proposed cutting welfare and abolishing the development ministry, which administers foreign aid, and folding it into the foreign office.
“It’s quite obvious that this coalition has major problems finding common ground,” Habeck said regarding the recent disputes. “The ideas are falling apart.”
Despite the frictions, Habeck, who also serves as the country’s vice chancellor, said he is certain that the coalition leaders will agree to a new draft budget by the end of this week.
Ahead of three state elections in eastern Germany in September in which the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) and the left-wing populist Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht are polling well, Habeck also warned of the dangers of rising populism in Germany.
They are “sawing away the pillars of this republic,” Habeck said. “They really want to make the system so full of holes, destabilize it so much that they eventually introduce a completely different system.”