Change of leadership in the Greens: party congress elects new chairperson

Created: 01/28/2022, 10:19 am

By: Sophia Lother

How are things going with the Greens?

Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck are leaving their posts, and a new leadership duo is to be elected at a party conference.

• The party congress of the Greens* starts on Friday (01/28/2022).

• Who will succeed Annalena Baerbock* and Robert Habeck*?

• Other positions will also be reassigned.

Berlin – An important change is pending for the Greens.

The two chairmen, Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, are stepping down after four years.

A new leader will be elected at the party conference beginning on Friday.

She has to do a difficult balancing act.

On the one hand to preserve the independence of the party and on the other hand to enable government in the "traffic light".

While Baerbock took over the Foreign Office in the traffic light government made up of SPD*, Greens and FDP*, Habeck received the Ministry for Economics and Climate Protection.

Because of the usual separation of party and government offices among the Greens, they are now giving up their chair positions.

Two candidates have already been identified for the successor.

Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck step down.

Who will lead the Greens in the future?

(Archive image) © Kay Nietfeld/dpa

Change of leadership in the Greens: Party congress should elect a new duo

Deputy party leader Ricarda Lang and foreign politician Omid Nouripour are standing for election.

The tasks before them are great.

The focus is on the controversial Corona special payments of 1500 euros each, which the Green Federal Executive * granted itself in 2020.

The funds were repaid, but the public prosecutor's office has now started investigations into the initial suspicion of infidelity.

So far, the process has not caused any major unrest among the Greens - the party is more concerned with its role in the traffic light coalition.

After a fairly harmonious start, the Greens are now feeling the strain of the level.

Even the nomination of the ministers in the traffic light cabinet was tantamount to a tough power struggle.

A fight broke out over the occupation of the agriculture department.

Cem Özdemir* finally prevailed against Anton Hofreiter.

New boss floor at the Greens: Who will be the new management duo?

No sooner had the personnel been decided than the Greens were annoyed by a push by the then designated Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing, to relieve diesel drivers.

The FDP politician's initiative reminded the Greens that the Liberals could step on the brakes on their ambitious climate protection goals.

But the FDP is not the only problem of the Greens in the traffic light coalition: Foreign Minister Baerbock has to assert herself against Chancellor Olaf Scholz* (SPD), who takes a more moderate course in Russia policy than many Greens would like.

But especially when it comes to their core issue of environmental protection, the Greens are confronted with some bitter realizations: On New Year's Day, Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke had to protest against the EU Commission's plan to classify energy production from nuclear plants as sustainable. And two weeks ago, Habeck admitted that Germany was "significantly behind" when it came to the targets for CO2 reduction* and the expansion of renewable energies.

Such messages are bitter pills for the grassroots.

After all, there are enormous expectations of Habeck and his important department.

Even the outgoing party leadership fears that the climate movement could turn away from the Greens in disappointment.

"The decisive thing is that we do not repeat a mistake made in government from 1998 to 2005, where the Greens did not manage to stay in dialogue with social alliance partners, where there were also upheavals," said outgoing federal manager Michael Kellner recently to RTL and nv.

Party congress of the Greens: Other successors are also decided

Kellner, who is now Parliamentary State Secretary in Habeck's ministry, is also resigning from his post at the party congress – Emily Büning, the former head of organization at party headquarters, is running to succeed him.

Of course, there are high expectations of the two future chairmen - especially from the Green Youth.

The newcomers to the party hope that the new national board will “ensure that the party will continue to be visible in the future and that conflicts will arise”, as its chairman Timo Dzienus explained to the afp.

So the Greens are by no means in the throes of calm waters.

Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour will not be short of conflicting issues when they are elected new party leaders on Saturday.

It remains to be seen how well they will navigate their party through the troubled traffic light times.

(slo/afp)