Politics Habeck becomes Green candidate for chancellor in Germany

German Economics Minister Robert Habeck has made his candidacy for chancellor for the Green Party official. "I am running as a candidate for the Greens - for the people of Germany," he says in a video, according to a report by ARD-Hauptstadtstudio.

"If you want, also as chancellor. But that's not my decision, it's yours. Only you can decide that," he added.

It had already become public this morning that the Vice-Chancellor would officially declare his candidacy on Friday. Next week, the former leader of the Green Party would like to be nominated at the party conference in Wiesbaden next weekend. There are no promising rival candidates. The candidacy has been an open secret for months.

Habeck has been back on social media as a party politician since the previous day. Most recently, he appeared there as the Federal Minister of Economics, with accounts that were maintained by employees of the House. He is not allowed to use these state resources for the election campaign for the Greens.

In Germany, following the break-up of the "traffic light" coalition, the Bundestag is expected to be re-elected in March at the latest. However, Habeck's chances of following in the footsteps of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) are poor according to current polls. According to these, the Greens would only achieve 10 to 12 percent.

In the 2021 federal election, the Greens won 14.8 percent with chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock. This was far below their expectations after the polls had long seen them above 20 percent.

SDA