Actually, it should be easy game for the Greens: The Grand Coalition has presented a climate protection package that is criticized by all sides. From environmental organizations, from industry and of course from the "Fridays for Future" movement. And of course also from the Greens. "Bitter disappointed" she is, says Green Party boss Annalena Baerbock.
Best conditions for an opposition party to position itself on its core issue. Or?
But in the days after the Grand Coalition's cornerstone paper, the Greens seem a bit perplexed. There are several reasons for this:
- Despite their strong position in the Bundesrat, they can not fundamentally change or aggravate the government's climate protection measures.
- At the same time, the parliamentary group election will take place this Tuesday. The fight for the top of the political group has revealed some deep dissatisfactions.
- Baerbock's co-chairman Robert Habeck made an embarrassing mistake.
- And they are facing a directional decision.
The first problem: how blockade in the Bundesrat works, as the then SPD leader Oskar Lafontaine demonstrated in the late 1990s. Lafontaine blocked with his power in the Bundesrat, the government of Helmut Kohl, where he could, prevented about a major tax reform. However, this instrument was suitable only for preventing, hardly for designing. But that is precisely what the Greens strive for, they do not want to be seen as a blocker but as an improver.
Finally, the electoral successes of the past months in Bavaria, Hesse and the European elections have led to the fact that they have shown themselves constructive, opened up to other topics and milieus. If they blocked a carbon price in the Bundesrat, regardless of how low it was, they would soon be treated as radical and ideological.
Although they are now in nine state governments and probably in the future with Saxony and Brandenburg in two more, in Germany already governs a kind of informal Kenya coalition, but the chairman Baerbock must concede: "Even the best Federal Council can in a law where nothing does not fill this gap. "
At the same time, her party is being driven by the "Fridays for Future" movement. Can the Greens still hope for their support without a significant increase in the price of CO2? There is a horror scenario circulating in the party: although it will succeed in the government after the 2021 general election, it would not be able to enforce the necessary climate protection measures and miss the climate targets for 2030. For it is clear that the longer the measures are taken, the less likely they will be compliance with the goals. That's why some Grüner now wants new elections as soon as possible - and the government takeover.
Second problem: The surprising fight for the top fraction in the Bundestag. If the current leader of the parliamentary group Anton Hofreiter were to be voted out, the most prominent environmental politician of the Greens would leave the first row. Days after GroKo submitted meager climate decisions, that would be a remarkable sign. The current co-faction leader Katrin Goering-Eckardt also comes from Thuringia - there will be elected in a month. She is the only Thuringian of the Greens in the Bundestag. Which sign sent their deselection?
There is dissatisfaction with both Hofreiter and Göring-Eckardt, on the one hand with their leadership on the inside, on the other hand with their representation of the group outwards. Since Baerbock and Habeck are at the head of the party, the group has also lost importance.
Hofreiter and Göring-Eckardt are joined by Cem Özdemir and newcomer Kirsten Kappert-Gonther. He is considered quite difficult in cooperation, Kappert-Gonther is accused of naivety. If they win, that could upset the faction. Özdemir has also invited the Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche to a party congress as a party leader - at that time an uproar. Özdemir is considered extremely business friendly.
Again, the election reflects the directional decision, before the Greens are: Hofreiter is the last eco, Özdemir stands for the pragmatic part that wants to govern. An upper-realo.
Third problem: Habeck's embarrassing mistake. In the ARD interview, he got into the commuter lump sum, revealed a knowledge gap - and sat himself and the party out of the ridicule of political competition.
In retrospect, he delivered a typical Habeck statement: "Of course, I am annoyed animal that I made that." He did not have the exact rules on which types of train drivers could claim their costs of taxation on the slip.
It is not the first time that Habeck intervenes verbally - among other things, he questioned last year whether Bayern and Thuringia would be democratically governed. He apologized in all its form, which in turn seemed exaggerated in places.
And now? The Greens are at a crossroads: they have to decide in the group whom they trust. As a party, they must become aware of whether they want to be the parliamentary arm of climate demonstrations, and thus want to be perceived as a one-topic eco-party, or whether they are trying to broaden themselves further into the middle of society.
At the same time, the election will take place in Thuringia at the end of October. For the Greens, this is probably the most difficult polling since the beginning of their winning streak one and a half years ago.