BERLIN: The leader of the German Greens, Annalena Baerbock, was confirmed as her party's candidate to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel in September's general elections in a vote on Saturday at the party conference.
Delegates confirmed her by a large majority, along with her party co-chair, Robert Habeck, as the election campaign team leaders.
Together they were backed by 678 of 688 attendees at the conference that was held online.
Merkel is stepping down following the elections in September, after some 16 years in power.
The three-day Green party conference began on Friday and is being held online, attended by 800 delegates.
Baerbock, 40, was nominated for the post as chancellor-candidate by her party's executive committee in April.
On Friday, the leader of the committee praised her as someone who leads "with a clear compass and masters the challenges of these times with heart and mind."
A Green chancellor is conceivable, committee head Michael Kellner said.
However, after riding high in voter surveys, support for Baerbock dipped after a series of missteps.
Delegates will also vote on her party co-chair, Robert Habeck, in the poll that is due to be held on Saturday afternoon.
Baerbock's nomination nearly two months ago also prompted a wave of new members to sign up to the party.
But after riding high in voter surveys, support for Baerbock has dipped back after she appeared sloppy in declaring party-related income and inflated items on her resume.
Her call for higher petrol prices as a way of confronting climate change also opened her up for attack from party opponents.
An opinion poll published on Friday by German public television ARD showed support for the Greens dropping 6 points over the last four weeks to 20 per cent. Baerbock has admitted her errors with other Green Party figures springing to her defence.
"I obviously made a mistake there, and I'm very, very sorry about that, because it's actually about other big issues right now in our country," Baerbock said.
Friday's survey also showed Armin Laschet, the chancellor-candidate of Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian-based Christian Social Union allies (CSU) as emerging as voters' current choice as the next government leader.
Baerbock also came under pressure this week following her party's disappointing performance in a weekend state election in Saxony-Anhalt, which was seen as her first major electoral test.
But Baerbock received some surprising support for her stance on petrol prices with Ralph Brinkhaus, a CDU-CSU parliamentary leader saying petrol prices would rise under a CDU-CSU led government.
"The fight against climate change will not be for free," Brinkhaus told German public television.
In addition, the current national backing for the Greens as measured by the opinion polls is more than double the 8.9 per cent the party secured in the last election in 2017.
If repeated in the September election, it is likely to place the Greens in a strong bargaining position as a kingmaker to join the country's new ruling coalition. The Greens, an environmentally-centred party that has taken a pragmatic turn in recent years as it seeks broader support, also plan to thrash out at the conference their election manifesto. - dpa
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