Letter to Annalena Baerbock: You are responsible for three lost years in foreign policy
Annalena Baerbock fought for a better world. In vain. In a letter to the outgoing Foreign Minister, our author investigates the reasons.
Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock will serve as Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs until the new Bundestag elects a new government. She was sworn in on December 8, 2021. Looking back on her three years in office, our author writes a personal letter to her.
Dear Annalena Baerbock,
You shouldn't kick someone who's falling in the knee, and gloating shows weakness of character. Nevertheless, you yourself can't be happy with your constituency result. 15.9 percent of the first votes, even less for the second votes - even in tranquil Potsdam , only those who really believe in good seem to be voting Green .
In a time that is getting tougher, you remain a beacon of hope for the many who want a different world or the world to be different. You want to combine humanity and empathy with politics, you want to promote values rather than primarily interests, and above all you want to ensure that the mother of two remains visible behind the mask of the minister.
That is a very German wish; it makes you a very German person. Hans in Luck was also a very German person; somehow you remind me of him. Instead of calculating how you can maximize the interest and increase your talents once you have reached a favorable position, you wear your heart on your sleeve. Isn't one of the most beautiful sentences in the canon of German fairy tales: "There is no one under the sun as happy as I am," exclaimed Hans?
Whenever you spoke into a microphone after one of your visits to the front during wars and civil wars, I thought of this sentence. You reported on the unspeakable suffering of mothers and children, the misery of refugees, hunger and epidemics - and you seemed happy to me. You shared suffering and, true to the saying, you halved it. Like Hans in Luck with his fortune.
Or was that just a method? Am I, in the end, the duped naive, the naive person who believes you are good because the Greens are good people?
You see, I'm not sure. That's where your problem starts. It won't get any better if you communicate according to the motto "Oops, here I am". Of course, some people like the unadulterated, direct, straightforward. After all, it is the opposite of courtly pretense and calculating maneuvering. Another very old, very German image of ourselves.
But how is it that even the simplest things seem mannered to you? Is your uninhibited directness just a stylistic device, a product of inner self-optimization, similar to the external optimization by make-up artists and hairdressers? Here too: I am not sure. And your problem is not getting any smaller.
Or the unforgettable sentence about the pigsty and international law. Thrown out casually as if with the little finger of the left hand, a devastating arrow that had to hit the heartthrob and competitor right to the core. People had high hopes for you after that; some had as much as Angela Merkel after her "divorce letter" in December 1999.
In the "Class of 2021" ranking of the US magazine Politico, you were the third most powerful European in the "Dreamer" category with the attribute "The Realist". That was long before the federal election. Your competitor and most powerful in the dreamer category was Ursula von der Leyen. Her attribute from the American perspective: "The Ambitious One", the associated motto "Make Europe Great Again".
Your name has disappeared from the ranking of the "Class of 2025" . Ursula von der Leyen is still there, now as the most powerful doer - instead of being listed under "Dreamer", she is now listed under "Doer". Leyen's appearance at the Munich Security Conference showed that she also intends to serve the new zeitgeist (without do-gooders) with power. Talented politicians are always opportunists. And "Make Europe Great Again" has a future.
The fact that you no longer play a role in the ranking of the powerful, at least from an American perspective, has to do with the nature of foreign policy. Being human is more than humanity, more than empathy, harmony and peace; being human is also war and conflict. Foreign policy must do justice to both. Foreign policy must not just demand, foreign policy must deliver. It is not about good will, it is about the result.
Has Germany played an active, constructive role in international conflict resolution in recent years? Of course, we have supplied Ukraine with money and weapons; one could say: too much for defeat, too little for victory. But have we brought the conflict closer to a solution? Have we done more than stand loyally by the leading NATO power (until Donald Trump took office)?
You have only rhetorically given German foreign policy a profile of your own. So only one word remains in our memory: must. How often have you said it into the microphones: must, must, must . Secure peace, end suffering, shape the future.
But what peace has Germany secured, whose suffering has it ended, what future has it shaped? The fact that our country has lost a great deal of power, influence and prestige compared to Angela Merkel's chancellorship is not only, but also, your fault. Too many words, too few actions.
The role of women is being discussed everywhere, worldwideThat is not to say that every approach was wrong. It was just not delivered. One correct approach was the importance of the role of women. The topic is being discussed intensively around the world, not least in the Islamic world. Even in Afghanistan and Iran. But the discussion is not following the lines of Western feminism. Are you doing the women of the world a favor by preaching from a foreign perspective? Decide for yourself.
As Foreign Minister, you put autocrats in their place and made it clear to the world once and for all that we Germans have – pardon the expression – eaten social progress with a spoon. From Timbuktu to Beijing, none of your colleagues there will forget that for a thousand years.
But does that help us? Your German voters are delighted: Annalena Baerbock is showing the autocrats, the villains of the world. However, there aren't that many voters anymore. Most Germans have understood: less would have been more. As much as I'm sorry, you are responsible for three years of foreign policy losses.
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Berliner-zeitung
