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Anti-Palmer demonstration in Tübingen last Wednesday
Photo:
ULMER / imago images / ULMER press picture agency
The Greens are a party that advocates diversity.
It's on their website.
Diversity wherever you look.
There is a “AG Diversity” for a “Diversity Report”, a “Diversity Congress” and a green “Diversity Statute” with the beautiful sentence: “The diversity of our party is our strength.” It can get very dizzy .
How little talk of diversity counts in practice has been shown by many Greens for years when dealing with their party colleague Boris Palmer. Because the mayor of Tübingen deviates from the line in refugee policy, he contributes to the diversity of opinion, but is insulted as a racist. "Boris Palmer is the one disgusting guy that everyone at the party just wants to get rid of and who just can't get rid of it," wrote the Green Youth on Twitter a year ago. At school, it would be your turn for such a statement about bullying, in green networks you get likes and hearts. The motto of the young Greens is: Everyone can say their opinion - as long as it matches ours.
Now, a few days ago, Palmer actually used a racist expression on Facebook that is so out of the question that I will not repeat it.
Palmer speaks of an "unsuccessful attempt at satire."
The language of the post is unworthy of a mayor.
But is that also why Palmer is a racist?
One has to be very malicious not to see that Palmer is using a quote here and is not expressing his own opinion.
For the Greens, the statement is a welcome occasion to kick Palmer out.
The responsible state board prepares a party regulation procedure.
"Boris Palmer has lost our political support," says Annalena Baerbock, the green candidate for chancellor with a background in international law.
"The motto of the Green Youth is: Everyone can express their opinion as long as it matches ours."
Palmer protests that he is not a racist.
Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann and other people who know him better than the Sofa Court of Justice on Twitter confirm this. Three years ago, Palmer mocked a brazen "guy with a bare chest" who was circling around people on his bike;
"95 percent" was an asylum seeker.
That was nonsense.
You can interpret that as racist, but you don't have to.
It is certainly not proof that Palmer is a racist.
He himself apologized at the time, he said: "I made a serious mistake there." Palmer's services to the green cause are undoubtedly.
He already tortured motorists in Tübingen when the party leaders were still driving fat company cars in Berlin.
Parties have to adhere to democratic rules.
They are not kick-off clubs and cheering groups, they have to endure internal critics;
the hurdles for being kicked out are high.
Should Palmer, as announced, defend himself against the expulsion, he has a good chance.
However, he has lost his influence.
It remains a green party whose culture of debate is as diverse as a corn field in Brandenburg.