Annalena Baerbock has brought a new style to the cabinet. You could see that when you took the oath of office. The other ministers wore the usual government armor: solid fabrics, edgy suits, little color. The new German Foreign Minister, on the other hand, appeared in a light blue dress with a swinging pleated skirt. And so she continued. She arrived in Brussels shortly afterwards in a bright red coat. Message: Attention, here I come. Anyway, the coats. Instead of black, they are mint or caramel. And tied around the waist. Instead of flat leather shoes, Baerbock wears high-heeled boots. And instead of tone on tone, patterns and flowers. Not a person who has become an official, but a woman who hides neither her age nor her gender.
When Baerbock traveled to Moscow for talks shortly before the outbreak of war, everyone took a very close look: Can the inexperienced young woman take on the shrewd long-standing Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov? She could. In a dark trouser suit, she met Lavrov as equals – with one small, crucial difference. Instead of black, she wore purple, the suffragette color that women had used as a sign of steadfastness 100 years ago. And that’s exactly how she countered the Russian’s request to drink her vodka: “If drinking vodka at noon is an endurance test – I’ve given birth to two children.” Equality through difference.