Mistakes admitted – Baerbock U-turn to her copy-book – Politics Inland

Remarkable U-turn by Annalena Baerbock (40).

In the dispute over her book (“Now: How we renew our country”), the Green Chancellor candidate admitted mistakes for the first time. A break with the previous line of defense.

► “In retrospect, it would certainly have been better if I had worked with a list of sources”, she now told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.

Background: Numerous passages had become known in the Book of the Top Greens, some of which corresponded almost word for word to other, previously published texts of others – without any reference to external sources. Even a description of Baerbock’s about a trip she herself undertook to Iraq and Kurdistan was copied in parts. She had even made use of the CDU.

“I slipped into old trenches for a moment”

Now the chancellor candidate says she is taking “the criticism seriously”. You have consciously resorted to publicly available sources, especially when it comes to facts.

Then Baerbock combines self-praise with self-criticism: for more than three years she worked with Robert Habeck and other Greens on “overcoming gaps through a different approach and attitude”. This type of communication is put to the test in a tough election campaign, precisely because of personal hostility. “I also slipped into old trenches for a moment,” she admitted. “It’s about the opposite: to discuss the big questions of the future openly and broadly, hard and clear on the matter, but fair in tone and open to arguments.” This is how she wants to campaign.

Suddenly also self-critical tones? A turning point in communication.

So far, Baerbock and the Greens had sounded very different, trying to portray the criticism as a “dirty campaign” and “character assassination”.

► After the scientist Stefan Weber (51) published the first plagiarism sites (there are now over 40), Baerbock was initially silent. On Thursday of last week she said during the talk of “Brigitte” in Berlin: “I didn’t write a non-fiction book, but what I want to do with this country – and on the other hand, described the world as it is based on facts and realities. ”You take,“ the public sources that are also available ”. “A lot of ideas from others” were included.

At the book presentation, however, Baerbock himself spoke of it being a non-fiction book.

Photo: www.breuel-bild.de

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Annalena Baerbock at the talk “Brigitte Live”Photo: www.breuel-bild.de

Remarkable: The Chancellor candidate compared the allegations against herself at “Brigitte Live” with dirty campaigns from the past US election campaign: “We all saw as a society what that has done in the US when the election campaign is no longer about the big issues of our time but rather because the truth and the untruth somehow mix. ”

In an interview with the Funke media group on July 3, Baerbock still stuck to her line, said: “This is not a textbook, so there are no footnotes.”

Greens defended Baerbock bitterly and aggressively

Before that, the Greens had their party drummed up for them. With sometimes violent words. Green MEP Reinhard Bütikofer (68) spoke on Twitter of a “right-wing propaganda war” against Baerbock, Green veteran Jürgen Trittin (66) also wrote on Twitter of a “dirty campaign by BILD” (that other media had reported on the allegations much earlier , he didn’t care). Other Greens spoke of “character assassination” or misogyny. Incredible: The free press was even accused of Hitler’s methods.

Foto: picture alliance/dpa

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Reinhard Bütikofer spoke of a “right-wing propaganda war”Foto: picture alliance/dpa