Green autumn: German ecology party loses influence
Published: Sunday, Nov 19th 2023, 09:20
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When the German Greens meet for their national party conference on Thursday, they also want to celebrate a little. The party's 40th anniversary was a few years ago, but the coronavirus pandemic thwarted larger celebrations in the anniversary year of 2020. The celebrations are now set to resume at the founding location of Karlsruhe.
Whether there will be a festive mood in Baden-Württemberg's capital is still a question. At the beginning of 2020, when the Greens turned 40, they were hovering at a high in the polls with ratings of over 20 percent. Ranking far ahead of the Social Democrats, they were the leading force on the center-left in Germany and were already dreaming of becoming chancellor. They were involved in state governments in 12 out of 16 federal states.
The candidacy for chancellor flopped, and in the 2021 federal elections, the Greens with Annalena Baerbock as their leader only came third behind the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats with 14.8%. They lost votes in the state elections in Bremen, Bavaria and Hesse this year. In Berlin, they were kicked out of the state government in the spring. And in Hesse, where they governed in harmony with the Christian Democrats for ten years, Minister President Boris Rhein (CDU) has now shocked them with the decision to hold coalition negotiations with the SPD.
At the party conference in Karlsruhe, the six-member federal executive committee will be newly elected and the two party leaders Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour are likely to be confirmed. The debates on the consequences of the Hesse debacle and the party's future course are likely to be more exciting than the personnel issues.
Hot potato migration
The fact that the Greens were kicked out of government in Hesse should be a wake-up call for his party, demanded Baden-Württemberg's Minister President Winfried Kretschmann, the only Green state leader in Germany. "The course of migration policy is crucial: take the brakes off when it comes to curbing irregular migration," he added.
Kretschmann, who is one of the "realos" (real politicians) in the Green Party, thus picked up a hot potato for the party. Because more than others, the Greens stand for a policy of open arms for immigrants. This year, however, the number of asylum seekers in Germany has already risen by more than 70 percent compared to the same period last year, and mayors and district councils hardly know how to accommodate all the people.
Co-party leader Lang also agreed with the call to limit immigration. "When capacities reach their limits - as they are now - the numbers must also fall," she wrote together with Kretschmann in a guest article for the Berlin newspaper "Tagesspiegel".
However, the Green Youth is rebelling against a tougher course on migration policy. The new co-chair of the youth organization, Katharina Stolla, accused the ruling "traffic light" coalition of SPD, FDP and Greens of pursuing a "misanthropic policy of isolation". The fact that the Greens in the government had agreed to a migration package was "not only morally questionable, but also strategically wrong", she said.
Black-Green no longer an option for power?
Controversies on the topic of migration are therefore to be expected at the party conference in Karlsruhe. It is also likely to be about future power options. Partly because of the immigration issue, Rhein had given preference to the Social Democrats in Hesse. However, the Greens had previously considered black-green as a safe coalition option in other states and at federal level. "The rejection in Hesse is also a catastrophe for the Greens nationwide," wrote the daily newspaper "Die Welt".
In addition to the new federal executive committee, the Greens will also elect the list of candidates for the EU Parliament elections in June 2024 in Karlsruhe. In the 2019 European elections, they achieved 20.5%, their best election result to date at national level. The party is currently a long way off this with poll results below 15%. The Greens may be comforted by the growth in membership: according to the party, it has risen to over 125,000, a good quarter more than in 2019.
©Keystone/SDA
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