Focus on climate crisis
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Reporting on climate change is one of the major journalistic challenges of our time. The climate crisis is also one of the most important issues of humanity for SPIEGEL. For this reason, we support an international initiative that seeks to take a look this week: "Covering Climate Now" was initiated by the Columbia Journalism Review and the Canadian newspaper "The Nation", with more than 200 media companies around the world, including the Guardian, El País, La Repubblica, The Times of India, Bloomberg or Vanity Fair. SPIEGEL is dedicating the cover story of the current issue to the climate crisis this week and every day pays special attention to mirror.de
Now it is time for the Greens of the Grand Coalition to keep their fingers crossed - climate protection makes it possible. "I can only hope that the SPD and Union will succeed," says Anton Hofreiter, the head of the green Bundestag faction. By Friday, the government parties want to agree on a package of measures, so that Germany reaches its climate protection target for 2030 - 55 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than 1990 -.
"We have no time left," says Hofreiter. "We have to act now, especially in the areas of transport, agriculture and renewable energies." Party leader Robert Habeck recently outlined what the Greens are specifically calling for: a CO2 pricing from January 2020, for example.
As much as the Greens should be pleased that their core topic of climate protection determines the political agenda in Berlin, they must ask themselves the question whether the GroKo does not dispute their brand essence. After all, ecology is one thing the otherwise often divided party can agree on.
The Greens have experienced this once before
These days, the Greens internally rather worries about a GroKo package to hear, which could probably cost more than it bring. But what happens to the verdicts and election results of the Greens, should the government decide on substantial improvements in climate protection?
The Greens have already experienced what can happen if the Merkel government occupies one of their subjects. In 2007, "Climate Chancellor" Angela Merkel was photographed in the red anorak in front of the Eqi Glacier in Greenland. The picture remained in the memory of the nation.
A few years later, in 2011, seven nuclear reactors were shut down after the reactor accident in Fukushima; The Merkel government also accelerated its exit from nuclear energy - once a key demand of the Greens. After Fukushima, the party was at times in nationwide polls at 28 percent. Two years later, when the election was in fact, they landed at 8.4 percent. The chancellor had taken their topic from them.
Now this pattern could be repeated on climate protection. The hot summer of 2018 and the Friday-for-Future movement brought the green crowd. The election results in Bavaria and Hessen 2018 were excellent, in the European elections in May 2019, they reached 20.5 percent of the vote. Since then they have spent 20% + X on the 2021 federal election.
Political opponents try to profile themselves in terms of climate policy
But things are not going smoothly anymore for the Greens. The election results in Saxony and Brandenburg were worse than expected. Some in the party already expect that these values could fall further until the fall.
Political opponents, meanwhile, try to profile themselves in terms of climate policy: Markus Söder, for example, Bavarian prime minister and CSU chief. He has been trying to profile his party as green for months. "We invented environmental protection," he said recently in an interview with Bild am Sonntag. It is the "original motive" of the Christian social, "the preservation of creation". A few months ago, the Landtag in Munich passed a bill with stricter rules for nature conservation with a large majority - preceded by a popular referendum that had supported nearly 1.75 million people in the Free State.
The Greens, on the other hand, try to broaden their thematic scope. They want to be attractive to people who feel that they are in good hands when it comes to climate protection. At the Green Party Congress in November, it's mainly about housing and the economy. Internally, they are thinking about maybe occupying a state interior ministry. Habeck has spoken out in favor of replacing Hartz IV, Co-party leader Annalena Baerbock wants to introduce a basic child protection.
However: So far, the Greens are chosen mainly because of their determined attitude towards environmental and climate protection, which has opened up new layers of voters. Should their support lead to government participation from 2021 on, the population will expect the Greens to guarantee compliance with the 2030 climate targets. That would be vital for the party then.
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