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Green party leadership Baerbock, Habeck: Everything under control?
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
When the Greens spoke up in the corona crisis, it was difficult to decide for a long time who was speaking: the opposition or the government.
The tone was restrained to state-supporting.
It changes.
Party leader Annalena Baerbock called for a "pandemic economy", complained about the situation of the families in the shutdown.
Baerbock's co-chairman Robert Habeck spoke out in favor of an "emergency vaccine industry".
However, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder can also warm up to this.
The CSU politician recently confirmed to the Greens that they had been "a more reliable partner than many other parties" during the corona crisis.
At the beginning of the super election year, the Greens are in line with a ruling party even if they want to oppose.
The question is whether that will help them.
And whether they would really act better in power.
Because at the moment the Greens are busy with themselves, they seem nervous.
How little is enough to get them excited was shown recently when twelve committed basic members sent a letter to the federal executive board and the press.
In the letter, they called on the party leadership not to nominate any candidate for chancellor or candidate for chancellor.
The Greens have more than 100,000 members.
If a dozen of them write a letter, it shouldn't really be a big upset, lacy greens could have let it roll off.
But they didn't.
Members of the Bundestag, a deputy chairwoman, office managers and ordinary members distanced themselves on Twitter.
Federal Managing Director Michael Kellner replied to the authors immediately, his letter was also launched to the press.
This could give the impression that the question of the candidate for chancellor was actually controversial.
It is not - its content has long been clarified.
The party leaders Baerbock and Habeck will propose to the party to run for chancellor between Easter and Pentecost.
And the Greens will in all probability accept it with a large majority.
2021 is set to be the most important year in their history for the Greens
It is noteworthy how only the reaction of leading Greens led to the fact that the letter was discussed for several days.
It was a mistake for a party whose primary goal is to exude unity and inner-party peace during the election campaign.
However, the nervousness is understandable.
2021 is set to be the most important year in party history for the Greens.
After the general election on September 26th, they want to be part of the government, their goal is even to move into the Chancellery.
However, they are currently well behind the Union in surveys.
In order to maintain their minimal chance, they must not make any mistakes.
That is why the party leadership is so concerned about staying in control.
For a brief moment it looked as if the old wing logic was flaring up again
But that is sometimes difficult.
To the boredom of the Greens, the alleged conflict over writing was joined by a dispute over Germany's nuclear participation.
So about the question of whether the USA should continue to station nuclear weapons in Büchel in Rhineland-Palatinate and whether German fighter planes should drop them in case of doubt.
Ellen Ueberschär, part of the board of directors of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which is close to the green, published a guest article in the »Tagesspiegel«.
In it, she referred to NATO as the "hot core of the transatlantic relationship" and spoke out in favor of Germany's nuclear participation.
The military alliance has traditionally been controversial within the party, and Ueberschär's text was an affront to parts of the left wing.
Ex-Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin told the "taz" that it was "a mystery" to him what "was supposed to be green about this neoconservative surcharge".
Other party links followed suit.
The deputy parliamentary group leader Agnieszka Brugger told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that she was “very irritated”.
That does not correspond to the basic program of the party.
For a brief moment it looked as if the old wing logic of the Greens flared up again: left wing against the more pragmatic Realos.
Baerbock reassures the party - but does it have to?
According to information from green officials, the incident only played a brief role in the parliamentary group meeting last Tuesday.
Nonetheless, party leader Baerbock, even Reala, apparently felt compelled to quote the recently adopted basic program of the party at the annual foreign policy conference of the Böll Foundation "very, very clearly as the party chairman of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen": "Our claim is nothing less than a nuclear-free world, ”she said.
"This also includes Germany free of nuclear weapons and thus a speedy end to nuclear participation." Your words should probably serve to reassure you.
The conflict could be the first sign of a major dispute that the party leadership cannot be interested in in the super election year.
In the basic program cited by Baerbock, there is a softening of green positions compared to previous programs:
In the program for the 2017 Bundestag election it was clear: "We GREENS are calling for the last nuclear weapons to be withdrawn from Büchel and for the final abandonment of the 'nuclear participation' that is contrary to international law."
The party’s basic program last November stated that “we must work together with our international and European partners towards the goal of a Europe free of nuclear weapons”.
The tendency is clear: the Greens are quietly creating the basis for taking on more responsibility in the defense sector without being pelted with bags of paint from the grassroots, as happened to then Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in 1999 at the party congress in Bielefeld.
At that time it was about the German participation in the NATO operation in the Kosovo war.
Greens also open up programmatically
The Greens are not only giving up old positions in defense policy.
You have reformulated your position on green genetic engineering, and there is a clear commitment to the market economy in the basic program.
While the Greens have long been capable of governing in everyday political life, the positions of the more radical section of the grassroots are often reflected in their programs.
That is changing, Habeck and Baerbock want to deliver the programmatic one along with the rhetorical realignment.
Because the Greens have had more bad experiences with radical demands than almost any other party.
The »Veggie Day« fiasco will not be forgotten.
One day a week, canteens should offer vegetarian food - this old Green demand made it into the 2013 program for the federal election.
It wasn't the only mistake in the election campaign, but the Greens still believe that because of "Veggie Day" they fell far short of expectations with 8.4 percent of the vote.
Baerbock and Habeck are likely to be careful enough to prevent something similar from happening in the 2021 election manifesto.
But it is unclear whether the leadership of the Greens will have to defend any substantive change in the party line.
After all, a large part of the base supports the new orientation.
It is unimaginable, for example, that a coalition agreement with the Greens could fail this year because of nuclear missiles in Büchel, even the sometimes critical left wing wants to govern after all.
The party could do with a little more calm.
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