Greens: District chief in Habeck's constituency resigns in protest

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Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) in May 2022 at an event in Flensburg

Photo: Axel Heimken / dpa

In protest against the nature conservation policy of Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), the Greens district chief has resigned in his constituency.

A few hours after the adoption of the new package of laws to promote renewable energies in the Bundestag, the Schleswig-Flensburg district chairman of Bündnis 90/Grüne, Rainer Borcherding, said: "I support the efforts to accelerate the urgently overdue energy transition in all essential points". However, the new wind power and nature conservation laws at federal level, in which Robert Habeck played a major role as Minister of Economics, are "intolerable" in their effect on biodiversity, Borcherdings said.

Nature conservation "not a matter of the heart"

The biologist Borcherding told the German press agency: "It's a big package of serious disappointments from a nature conservation point of view." He has known Habeck for a long time and also campaigned with him on the street.

"It was always my impression that nature conservation was not a matter close to his heart."

There is no party dedicated to nature conservation, except for the Greens - "and the Greens don't do it anymore either," said Borcherding.

The new legislative package contains a series of cuts in nature conservation, wrote Borcherding, who is active in the protection of the Wadden Sea in Schleswig-Holstein, in his resignation.

Endangered bird species such as the black stork and great bustard are deliberately ignored in the law, although they are protected by law throughout Europe.

In addition, it is almost impossible to buy agricultural land for species conservation programs.

And: The smallest hydroelectric power plants on rivers, "which only generate minimal electricity, but maximally damage the river," would continue to be subsidized, contrary to EU law.

atb/dpa