Overview

• Robert Habeck announced he will leave federal politics and give up his Bundestag mandate, ending a high-profile national career.
• He cited his reaction to Friedrich Merz’s government address, which he said echoed his own campaign positions on loosening the debt brake, as a decisive trigger.
• Reporting on his farewell remarks says he used disparaging language about Markus Söder and implied malice or stupidity by Bundestag president Julia Klöckner.
• Mechthild Heil, head of the CDU women’s union, condemned his comments as “rüpel- und machohaft” and accused him of having problems with opinionated women.
• His exit intensifies a debate inside the Greens over whether to abandon his conciliatory approach in favor of a sharper, more confrontational opposition strategy.