Germany's Annalena Baerbock ~ by TIME

  

Germany's Annalena Baerbock ~ by TIME

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     In person as well as in policy, Annalena Baerbock, the Chancellor candidate for Germany's Green party, is the clearest change candidate the country has seen in decades, writes Ciara Nugent.  At 40, she is the second youngest person—and the second woman after Angela Merkel, who is preparing to step down after 16 years in power—to run for Chancellor. In Germany, boring might be best, though. 

     Candidates promising sweeping, swift transformations have struggled in the country since World War II, according to Jeff Rathke, president of the Washington-based American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.  "Campaigns often have drawn on the trauma of Germany's past to provide cautious voters with an agenda of continuity," he says, citing an early campaign slogan by 1950's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer ("No Experiments!") and Merkel's own 2013 slogan: "You know me."  

     Baerbock's key message is that change is coming, whether Germans want it or not.  That change is not only Merkel’s departure.  It is visible in the villages swept away by the worst floods in 500 years in July, or the enormous pressure weighing on the economically important German car industry.  In that context, the Greens say a bet on Baerbock is safer than sticking with establishment parties who have failed to future-proof the country.  "The big challenge for me," Baerbock says, "is to make people trust that the change is stable." 

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