Green Party Congress: How Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock Beat Each Other On Camera

Green leader Annalena Baerbock has many talents. She can be witty on talk shows, she’s good at compromising and resolving disputes, she’s friendly and approachable. But giving speeches is not his greatest strength. That was evident at the Greens’ first digital party congress this weekend.

In order to hold the conference of federal delegates – that’s the name of the party congresses in the Green Universe – on the Internet in Corona’s time, the board of directors rented the Tempodrom in Berlin and turned it into a kind of huge television studio. The few print and online journalists who are physically present sit in the stands, RTL, Phoenix, ZDF and ARD have set up their studios in the room itself, with some employees and technical staff sitting in front of their screens. Four stages are configured at the front. One of them reads Baerbock on Friday night and delivers the first political speech.

The voice laden with pathos

Despite the teleprompter, Baerbock speaks very slowly, as if he has memorized the words beforehand and as if he’s not sure which sentence follows the next. Over emphasizes parts of sentences. Society must now Accelerate the expansion of renewable energy. You need clean cars on the road. now. A circular economy – now. The “now” breathes on her and her voice is laden with pathos.

It is the cameras that make Baerbock’s speech worse than it would be otherwise. The cameras see everything, they record everything, nothing can be hidden. Baerbock touches his face, a small gesture that seems too big on a screen. The camera lets your sensation seem over the top, and your pauses are even longer than they already are.

Maybe it’s bad to criticize that. In other years, small mistakes would not be noticed. If the room were full of delegates, Baerbock could interact with them. She would speak faster, alone. His way of speaking would be less forced because he was not speaking to the camera but to his audience. But this party congress is being held in the new normal and in this politicians must be able to harmonize with the cameras in such a way that they appear accessible to the people behind the screens.

Baerbock’s weakness is particularly notable because the party’s congress is quite professional. The Greens have produced an opening film, the party congress slogan fades, “Every time has its color”, followed by scenes from last year, of demonstrations against the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, se you can see a photo of a doctor, who rests his head on his arms, of people lighting candles. It is underlined with epic music. “Those who fight for the good have some time,” says the voice from the start, followed by photographs of the Belarusian protesters, the Black Lives Matter movement, then a photograph of Habeck and Baerbock. That may be evidence of green arrogance, but it’s still professional.

Shelves that drive you crazy

Robert Habeck’s speech will follow on Saturday afternoon. The party leader is rhetorically credited with great talent, and not without good reason. Habeck, like Baerbock, reads from the teleprompter; otherwise it doesn’t do that, usually speaking freely and often without a manuscript. But Habeck also has to undergo the new normal, which obviously requires teleprompters. It seems harder than usual.

Habeck tells a story of a discount store where he sometimes goes shopping. The shelves had been rebuilt, Habeck couldn’t get his bearings, it took twice as long, it bothered him. Habeck almost screamed, speaking to himself angrily. If Habeck were not speaking to a camera, it would be difficult to imagine that he would speak of that anecdote of the supermarket, although very banal. But now he hits his left palm with the edge of his right hand. “Why the hell couldn’t they just leave things the way they are?” He bursts into tears.