Green Party Congress live: Today the focus is on foreign policy - Baerbock speech expected

Created: 10/15/2022, 10:35 am

By: Bettina Menzel

Voting on a motion by card at the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen party conference on Friday, October 14, 2022. © IMAGO/MARC JOHN

At the Green Party Congress, the delegates will deal with arms exports, the wave of protests in Iran and the continued operation of nuclear power plants.

Foreign Minister Baerbock will speak on Saturday.

• Important

  topics

  at the

  Green Party Congress

  : the Ukraine war, the energy crisis, arms exports, the wave of protests in Iran and climate change.

• Foreign policy

  in focus: Foreign Minister

  Annalena Baerbock

  speaks at the Green party conference on Saturday.

• This

  news ticker

  for the 48th Party Congress of the Greens in Bonn is constantly updated.

Bonn - When the first traffic light coalition at federal level began work in early December 2021, the world was different.

Now there is war in Europe and a dispute in Berlin: In view of the energy crisis, the FDP and the Greens disagree about the continued operation of the remaining nuclear power plants in Germany.

On Friday, the delegates backed their green Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck on this issue.

The thematic focus of the Green Party Congress on Saturday is foreign policy, it is also about the wave of protests in Iran and arms exports to Saudi Arabia.

• agenda on Saturday

• 9.30 a.m. to 10 p.m.: Federal delegates ’ conference

  
  

  11 a.m.: Start of the plenary session

  
  

  Speech by Green Party Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock

  
  

  Speech by Irina Scherbakowa, co-founder of the Russian human rights organization Memorial (Nobel Peace Prize winner 2022)

Green Party Congress: The delegates will discuss these issues on Saturday

After three digital party conferences, the Greens will meet again in person this year.

Friday was dedicated to energy policy and the nuclear power debate.

On Saturday it will be about foreign policy, the Greens politician and Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will speak in a speech to the 800 delegates at the party congress.

Under the agenda item "Values-based, multilateral, capable of action: green peace and security policy at a turning point", the delegates negotiated support for Ukraine in defense against Russia.

Guest speaker on Saturday is the co-founder of the Russian human rights organization Memorial, Irina Scherbakova.

The Nobel Prize Committee awarded Memorial this year the Nobel Peace Prize together with the Belarusian human rights activist Ales Byalyatski and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties.

While there should be agreement on the issue of arms deliveries in the Ukraine war, the debate about suspending the export ban on armaments to Saudi Arabia could be more difficult.

A motion for the party congress provides for a ban on arms deliveries to states involved in the Yemen war - as stated in the party's basic program.

But the federal government recently gave the go-ahead for the delivery of equipment and ammunition for fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.

The federal politicians Baerbock and Habeck have to face the base of their party on this and other issues.

In addition to arms exports, the wave of protests in Iran will also be discussed on Saturday.

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Nuclear power debate: This is how the Greens voted on Friday

Federal Minister of Economics Habeck and the FDP are in a clinch.

At the Green party conference on Friday, however, the delegates supported Robert Habeck.

A clear majority voted in favor of keeping the two southern German nuclear power plants Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 in reserve until April 15 and using them to generate electricity in an emergency.

According to a vote, the Emsland nuclear power plant is to go offline on January 1, 2023.

New fuel rods should therefore not be purchased.

There were isolated safety concerns on the part of the delegates, and some also feared that the phasing out of nuclear energy could be gradually revised as a result.

Former Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin is considered to be Habeck's toughest critic in the Bundestag when it comes to nuclear power.

However, the vehement opponent of nuclear power held back from confrontations at the party conference on Friday.

In the application that was passed, there is now the passage: "Bündnis 90/Die Grünen will not agree to any legal regulation in the Bundestag with which new fuel elements, nor the new enriched uranium required for them, are to be procured." It was unclear until the end whether the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag would be able to answer this question will vote.