Habeck’s unsuccessful advertising campaign: Team Mensch

Munich was not thrilled when a huge Habeck portrait was projected onto the Victory Gate last Friday: not the political opponents, not Habeck’s Green Party friends, not the police, who intervened because election advertising on monuments had to be approved.

“Alliance Chancellor. A human. One word,” read the projection. This is the top slogan of Habeck and the Greens, which can now also be seen at the party’s election campaign launch in Lübeck. The word combination “Chancellor” and “Human” appeared in a social media post a few days ago. In it, Habeck announced: “My resolution for 2025: Become Chancellor, remain human.”

It’s been a long time since there was so much humanization in German politics. One wonders whether Habeck received good advice from Jung and Matt, the advertising agency responsible for the Green Party’s campaign. It goes without saying that “one man, one word” no longer works, especially not in the green fan base. But a person, a word? Stay human? What does Habeck want to say with this that everyone doesn’t know anyway, even people?

“For people, for the country.”

That he stayed down, that he is close to the people, that, exactly, he cares about people. But who should believe that from a man who, as everyone knows, has asserted himself in a political power structure, who is above all a power person and who prevailed against Annalena Baerbock at the time. As Habeck writes in his book “Up the Stream,” in which people are mentioned well over a hundred times: “I know how interwoven decision-making processes are and that you cannot avoid even the most difficult human situations. During this time I made decisions that have consequences. For people, for the country.”

This emphasis on the people in “Team Robert”, a construction that is also ingratiating and embarrassing, is pure kitsch and against the background of the actual goals of the Greens (more than 14 percent, becoming alliance partners, even in a government with the CDU/CSU ) it further empties the humanity in people.

What about Habeck’s charisma?

It would have been more obvious to emphasize in the advertising campaign that Robert Habeck is more than just a person: namely a guy with a certain charisma, especially in comparison to Olaf Scholz, Friedrich Merz, Alice Weidel and Christian Lindner. Not to mention that, as the author of books other than “Up the Stream”, he has more than just politics on his mind, so he is able to look beyond the famous political box.

But no: a human. And: one word. No rogue if you know this word all too well…