German Greens leader Baerbock under fire for resumé inflation

German Greens leader Annalena Baerbock is facing renewed questions over her professional ethics following the discovery of several factual inconsistencies on her official resumé. 

Baerbock, who is also her party’s candidate for chancellor in Germany’s September election, falsely claimed membership at the German Marshall Fund and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), among other lesser-known organizations, in the CV available on her official website. 

Though Baerbock is affiliated with all of the organizations cited, her involvement in several instances was exaggerated. For example, she is not a member of the UNHCR, which doesn’t have individual members, but she supports UNO-Flüchtlingshilfe, a German refugee organization that raises money for the UN’s refugee arm.  

The document was corrected overnight after a German journalist dissected the false information on Twitter. 

“As a result of queries about ‘memberships’ cited on Ms. Baerbock’s resumé, the information was adjusted and corrected,” Andreas Kappler, the Green’s campaign spokesman, said on Twitter early Saturday. 

The episode is the latest in a string of embarrassing lapses by Baerbock concerning her professional past that has arisen since she declared her candidacy for chancellor. Last month, she acknowledged that she had failed to declare thousands of euros in extra income she received from her party in addition to her salary as an MP, disclosures required by the German parliament. 

Baerbock has also faced scrutiny of her academic background — she received a degree in international law from the London School of Economics. Some German critics questioned whether she had fulfilled all the requirements for entry into the program, which she completed in 2005. 

Just as Baerbock had laid those doubts to rest, the inconsistencies regarding the memberships listed in her CV came to light. 

Support for the Greens remains strong in Germany, but the party’s poll numbers have dipped recently amid the scrutiny of Baerbock’s background and the party’s program.