Habeck took on the vice chancellorship when his Greens joined a government with the center-left Social Democrats and neoliberal Free Democrats in 2021. He also presided over a powerful super-ministry uniting the climate and economy portfolios. The coalition collapsed late last year.
When the Greens returned to the opposition benches following February’s snap election, Habeck withdrew from senior party positions and was rumored to be considering quitting politics altogether. A petition signed by nearly half a million people asked him to stay on.
In Monday’s interview, Habeck appeared downcast about the ability of Germany’s centrist parties to halt the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany, and attacked several senior conservatives for shifting their rhetoric to the right.
If trends continue and mainstream parties continue losing ground, their dominance “will be over for good,” he warned. “Politically desirable democratic alternatives are not on offer … A new approach must be found. And I can’t find that within the confines of the system I helped build over the last 20 years.”