Who Will Succeed Angela Merkel?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I did say that you would have to fill some very large shoes if you wanted to step into Angela Merkel’s role. Is that fair? Does that — is that a burden on you? How do you feel taking this on?

ANNALENA BAERBOCK, LEADER, GERMAN GREEN PARTY: Hello, and good afternoon over the Atlantic. It’s really a big pleasure for me to be on your show. Thanks a lot for the invitation. Yes, these are a very important three weeks up to come in Germany, because of after decades of — after Angela Merkel, with big shoes, we choose a new chancellor. And it’s really a historical decision in Germany, because the question if we really renew our country with a Green chancellor, or if we keep on going like in the last years. So, it’s really an important time for Germany.

AMANPOUR: So I’m going to get to Green in a moment, because it is extraordinary. You have got 11 of your 16 areas that are in coalition with Greens. It’s the first time a Green candidate is running for this position. But I first want to go back to Afghanistan, because your foreign minister is in the region. You yourself said during the evacuation and the fall of Kabul that the German government had missed signals from your own diplomats in the country in Afghanistan and contributed to this failure over the last several weeks. Can you explain what you think should have gone better, how it should have been done?

BAERBOCK: First of all, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the fallen U.S. service members after this horrible attack on the ground of Kabul. These are really emotional times for everybody, also for us in Germany, because many people, like you already had, in your little report, stayed in Afghanistan. Many people who have the German citizenship, many people who worked for the German armies couldn’t be saved over the last few weeks. And one of the big failures from the German government was that, after the U.S. administration declared in April that they would withdraw end of August, the preparation didn’t work as they should in Germany to bring back German citizens, but especially people who worked with the German army, who worked with German NGOs to get the visas ready for those people to go in — to leave the country towards Germany. And because those preparations weren’t done, many, many people couldn’t be saved over the last weeks.