"Radically realistic" is the solution in climate policy. The wording comes from a leading motion, which the Federal Executive of the Greens presented for the party congress in November. The planned measures go much further than the climate protection plans of the Grand Coalition.
The CO2 emission in the traffic and building area is to be occupied immediately with a price of 40 euro per ton; until 2021 this should rise to 60 euros and then even higher. The installation of oil heaters would be banned immediately, cars with combustion engines slowly disappear from the streets and from 2030 will no longer be allowed.
Two weeks ago, the Union and the SPD agreed on a climate package. The compromise was criticized as much by the other parties on the day of the unification as by activists and experts; Above all, the CO2 entry price of ten euros per tonne was considered by many to be far too low. But in the weeks that followed it became comparatively quiet.
Greens had a long wait with a counter-position
In particular, the Greens let it move in attacks against the GroKo compromise - as a result of which party leader Robert Habeck drew a mockery of the commuter charge. With the formulation of a true counter-position, the party but just made its core issue difficult.Now so the lead application: prices, numbers, charges. And accordingly: attack surface for the political opponents.
RONALD WITTEK / EPA-EFE / REX
Green boss Robert Habeck: Faux pas in the commuter package
"The Greens act neoliberal," criticized the leader of the SPD Bundestag, Rolf Mützenich, the request immediately. This may have something to do with the fact that the Greens electorate on average have a high income, said Mützenich the "Tagesspiegel". The SPD, on the other hand, has an eye on those "who do not have enough money to live and consume in a climate-friendly way without major losses".
Debate turns into politics
That they can not ignore the topic of climate, all parties know at the very latest since the European elections in May. For months, the various political camps have been looking for a climate policy profile.
But now that the Greens debate a CO2 entry-level price, which is four times as high as the GroKo, and that in turn the SPD faction leader thrown the slightly out of fashion fighting concept "neo-liberal", shows: In climate policy, it becomes more concrete and more measurable in the medium term.
Wolfgang Kumm / dpa
SPD parliamentary leader Rolf Mützenich: "The Greens are acting neoliberal"
It is becoming clear which measures will demand from whom and how much. In return, the different and differently affected sections of society are likely to look for advocates in the political landscape and thus fuel competition among the parties. The debate in recent months is now politics.
The case of the controversial online protest group "Fridays for Hubraum" shows that since the climate agreement of the Federal Government and the social debate pick up and form camps.
Launched by a few friends from the autotuner scene on Facebook in late September, the closed group now has more than half a million members. Last week, the creators of the car tuner Christopher Grau had temporarily closed them, as it had come to murder calls and rape fantasies against the figurehead of the global climate protests, the 16-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg.
AfD supports opponents of Greta Thunberg
It is unclear whether "Fridays for Displacement" will ever reach the relevance of its declared opponents, the Fridays for Future climate activists. Also does not hide behind every Facebook profile also necessarily a real person.
But the movement is already busy with politics. She finds support with the AfD. "Fridays for Hubraum 'is a logical and reasonable response against the ideological insanity of eco-activists," said AfD party leader Jörg Meuthen the SPIEGEL. Previously, the new Saxon AFD Group had the group advertised on Facebook. The parliamentary group of the right-wing party is planning a film project that deals critically with Greta Thunberg.
REUTERS
AfD chief Meuthen: "Ideological insanity of eco-activists"
"If the AfD finds us great, what should we do about it?", Says "Fridays for Hub" initiator Grau. He himself was neither afD supporters nor climate deniers.
At the end of July, the AfD published an environmental policy program in which climate protection is described as "expensive, useless and ineffective". The position of right-wing populists on the causes of climate change and the role that humans play in this conflict with current scientific findings.
Lindner leaves distance to "Fridays for Hubraum"
FDP boss Christian Lindner, however, is at a distance from the group. "Some deny climate change, the others exploit climate protection for socialist ideas, the cornerstones of AfD and Greens split as in the migration of our country," says the liberal. It was his party's task to "contradict both and reach a reasonable center".
CSU national group chief Alexander Dobrindt looks at the influx, the "Fridays for Hubraum" experiences with concern. Those who want to shift the costs of climate protection primarily to families, commuters and rural areas, will inevitably harvest protest and promote the risk of a yellow-vein movement in Germany as well. "We want and need to win the fight against climate change, and that will only succeed with public acceptance, not against citizens," says Dobrindt.
The question of how much which citizens will accept is likely to shape his party's policies - and those of everyone else - for the foreseeable future.
