At the end of 2021, Annalena Baerbock was considered unsuitable for the office of Foreign Minister; she came in last in the competence question. Seven months later, the majority of Germans are convinced that they can do global politics. How did Baerbock turn the game?
“If you concede a lot in the first half, you don’t just give up. You take a deep breath, lace your shoes tighter and turn the game around,” said Annalena Baerbock in her last stern interview. That was last summer, after her spectacular fall in the polls, shortly before the general election.
Today, a year later, she says: “The ups and downs of the last twelve months would have easily been enough for ten years. It was like in fast motion.”
She turned the game. Baerbock has made a political comeback in a way that hardly anyone believed possible. As only a few have succeeded before her.
