The Greens are currently on the wave of success.
According to strong polls, the party may now face troubled times.
The party congress could be more unpleasant than expected.
Munich - The digital party congress of the Greens will take place from June 11th to 13th, at which co-boss Annalena Baerbock will be officially confirmed as candidate for chancellor.
A few weeks ago it still seemed as if the online meeting would run as smoothly as the clarification of the K question, but now there is also headwind from the Greens.
There should already be more than 3000 amendments to the election platform.
The party congress before the general election could be more unpleasant than expected.
Greens: Election program under scrutiny?
3,000 amendments have already been submitted
When the Greens presented their provisional party program in mid-March, Baerbock and their co-chairman Robert Habeck probably had no idea how much they should be concerned with the contents of the 136-page paper. The core topics included, among other things, an immediate climate protection program including a coal phase-out as early as 2030 instead of 2036, as well as an expansion campaign for renewable energies; an increase in the top tax rate to relieve small and medium-sized incomes or an increase in the minimum wage to twelve euros.
All in all traditionally green topics, which is why the contradiction from your own party should not be too great.
But as
Der Spiegel
reports (edition 20/2021), there have been more than 3,000 amendments since the election program was presented.
Baerbock's attempts to minimize disputes about content threaten to fail.
Parts of the base demand far-reaching changes.
Greens: Amendments to the electoral program - Migration, Climate & Co.
Most of the amendments come from the left wing within the party. For example, Jian Omar, spokesman for the state working group on migration and flight in Berlin, wants to end the deportation agreement with Afghanistan and put aside all cooperation with the Syrian authorities. With regard to the refugee situation in Turkey, Omar calls for "legal escape routes for the refugees who are stuck there." Instead of "securing external borders", the program should read: "make external borders permeable".
Further applications call for more consistent action to be taken when it comes to saving CO2.
An amendment proposed by the green youth should speak of a “binding rent freeze at federal level”.
Since a similar project in Berlin was recently overturned by the Federal Constitutional Court, this proposal should not generate thunderous applause from all of the around 106,000 Green members.
The respective applications are currently being revised in part and will then be submitted to a vote in mid-June.
Political party |
Members (status: turn of the year 2020/21; source: dpa) |
|---|---|
SPD |
404.305 |
CDU |
399.110 |
CSU |
137.010 |
Green |
106,000 |
FDP |
66,000 |
left |
60,350 |
AfD |
32,000 |
Greens: "That is a dilemma" - How much radicalism, how much change is possible?
The amendments come at an inopportune time for the Greens. Even if the Boris Palmer case has stirred up the party a bit and Baerbock is increasingly being confronted with critical voices, the Greens are currently brimming with positivity and self-confidence. In the current polls, the currently weakest opposition party is sometimes even ahead of the Union. The approval ratings for Annalena Baerbock are better than those of her challengers and the Chancellery seems within reach. “I don't know why, in what is for us a very good situation, more than 3,000 amendments should be necessary,” complains an unnamed top politician of the party. "That is a dilemma," stated a member of the party leadership. A dilemma that Baerbock now has to solve.
The Greens are faced with a fundamental question, as they have already experienced several more left-wing parties when they strive for more power.
How much radicalism, how much change is possible?
If it is up to the applicant: the content needs to be adjusted.
However, it is unclear whether these will also be accepted by the potential electorate.
If the Greens want to go to the Chancellery, they are inevitably dependent on votes from voters who have made their mark on the CDU & Co. in the past.
And the political opponent knows that too, and wants to prevent a vote in his own camp from going down with all his might.
+
Could the amendments have any consequences for the harmony within the party, which is often publicly propagated?
Robert Habeck and especially Annalena Baerbock have to moderate the party congress wisely.
© Mike Schmidt / imago-images
Greens: Without "Germany" in the Chancellery?
Vortex around amendment
The Union and FDP, coalition partners in the Merkel II cabinet, recently criticized the change ideas of isolated Green members.
300 people had asked for the motto “Germany.
Everything is included. ”And to delete the Federal Republic of the same.
“The focus of our politics is on people in their dignity and freedom.
And not Germany, ”it said in the explanation.
Although this application was only signed by 300 people and would have had no chance of approval anyway, the political competition decided to tear it apart.
“Wanting to govern without a commitment to the country - what's next?” Wrote Markus Blume, General Secretary of the CSU. He accused the Greens of a "disturbed relationship with the fatherland". FDP official colleague Volker Wissing said: "The Greens are against Germany, but want to be elected and govern here !?" We are of course honored that the CDU has dealt so much with our draft program. ”At the party congress in June, the Greens will also have to deal intensively with their election program.
(as)