Sandra Maischberger confronted the former Vice Chancellor of the traffic light coalition right at the beginning of her broadcast with the possible election of Ilse Aigner for the office of Federal President. The former economics minister said that Ilse Aigner was a “very good choice”. It had been a long time since he met Aigner. Habeck pointed out that Aigner was Federal Minister of Agriculture at a time when he was working as Agriculture Minister in Schleswig-Holstein. "It was a very nice, good collaboration. In terms of humanity, it was better than a lot of what I experienced afterwards," emphasized Habeck.
The traffic light government collapsed two years ago, on the very day Donald Trump was elected US President for the second time. Last week, Trump's Republicans lost badly in the midterms. “Will America heal now?” Maischberger asked the former economics minister.
Habeck viewed the Democrats' successes in the US midterms as a signal of hope for American democracy. The so-called “blue wave” came as a surprise and showed that democratic forces could assert themselves against the influence of billionaire tech entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. The Green politician emphasized that “money and technical manipulation” do not necessarily have to prevail in a democracy.
“Not a good feeling”
At the same time, the former Green Party leader does not believe that the election defeat in the midterms will have an impact on US President Donald Trump's foreign policy. "This is the area least affected by the midterm elections," he said, adding: "And it is obvious that Trump and Putin now get along better than Trump and Zelensky. I would say the Trump administration has betrayed Ukraine."
He “doesn’t have a good feeling that the representatives of these two presidents are negotiating the fate of Ukraine and therefore of Europe.” That could “go completely wrong,” said Habeck. The US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi, scheduled for two days, are the first direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev in more than eight months.
Could it happen that Trump and Putin literally divide the world between themselves? That’s what Maischberger wanted to know from the former Vice Chancellor. “I think that the two of them would really like to divide the world between themselves, and then they would add Xi Jinping to it,” said Habeck.
“This is Trumpian megalomania or Trumpian greed”
The rest of the conversation focused on Greenland and the geopolitical interests of the world powers in the Arctic. Habeck deals with this topic in his new book “Arctic Meltdown: Re-measuring the World”, in which he analyzes the consequences of climate change for the global power order. Habeck pointed out that the Americans needed Greenland because of their defense doctrines. At the same time, Habeck assumes that Trump is interested in enrichment and oil and gas drilling in Greenland. “The fact that he says we want it is Trumpian megalomania or Trumpian greed.”
Habeck further argued that “China wants to gain the sea routes across the Arctic through the Bering Strait and that is always associated with power,” while Russia feels more threatened by the rapidly melting ice, “because the ice sheet has always been a protective shield, especially for the Northern Fleet, which is up there on the border with Norway.” Habeck further advocated that Europe should intervene geopolitically there - perhaps in alliance with Canada, Australia and South Korea.
The question of a possible political comeback could not be left out. Maischberger wanted to know whether Habeck would consider returning despite his withdrawal from active politics. The Green politician responded with a self-critical assessment of his previous political role. He was recently no longer able to live up to his own claim of creating cross-camp alliances and spaces for understanding. Instead, he became a polarizing figure. “And I don’t want to be that again,” explained Habeck. He therefore ruled out a return to active politics for the foreseeable future: “I’m building a new life for myself, wherever that leads, we’ll see.” That was the answer he could give.
