The Greens board can avert the feared escalation of the asylum dispute. But the small party congress gives an insight into the soul of a party unsettled by the government. There is fierce fighting behind the scenes and Robert Habeck lifts himself into the pathos box with a deep grip.
When the co-chair of the Greens resorts to the vocabulary of the social-democratic chancellor, the situation must be serious. But Omid Nouripour, who prefers to be silly when in doubt, actually practices the speech of Olaf Scholz, who prefers to be too serious when in doubt: “But we can only do that if we join hands,” says Nouripour at the small party conference of the Greens in Bad Vilbel about the common struggle for a humanitarian refugee policy in Germany and Europe. That old-fashioned “hooking” was Scholz’s word of 2022 as the energy crisis threatened to tear the country apart. When Nouripour speaks to his people at the end of what is perhaps the most difficult nine days of his tenure as party leader, it is precisely this word that comes to mind: “Hook up” before the headwind blows everything apart.
Anyone who met top politicians in the Greens last December, when they were exhausted by the ongoing crisis and were longing for vacation in order to be freshly motivated to get to work in January, must now realize that they looked better in December than they do today. So much has come together since then. Massive resistance to the heating law, which was incomplete and poorly prepared in terms of communication, the best man affair involving Robert Habeck’s ex-State Secretary Patrick Graichen, traffic light problems about the budget, transport policy, climate protection law and basic child security, poor state election results in the supposed strongholds of Bremen and Berlin, steadily falling poll numbers and now also a dispute within the party about Germany’s approval of the EU asylum compromise in the previous week.
“Have no longing for opposition”
So it was high time to get the almost 200 delegates and guests of the state council back on their feet. Hesse meeting point, because the Greens still have hopes of being able to make Tarek Al-Wazir prime minister here in the fall. That is why the conference center in the north of Frankfurt am Main was chosen months ago. Back then, nobody could have guessed that the party would bring its top candidate a whole bunch of problems from Berlin. And so the planned feel-good date turns into a therapeutic session for the party, with Habeck, author and doctor of philosophy, drawing particularly deeply from the pathos fountain.
Because the Greens are a governing party, the headwind will not abate but remain permanent, predicts Habeck. “We tack against the wind, we sometimes fall back, only to dare to dare to push forward, and sometimes we have to row,” says the Vice-Chancellor, reflecting on his seafaring experience. And a little less marine-heavy: “There is pressure on us from all sides, there is a lot of confrontation. It must not follow from this that we become more confrontational. We must not allow ourselves to be cornered, driven into a niche.” Habeck appealed: “Have no longing for a minority position, have no longing for opposition. That would be failure in the historic task we are facing.”
Beautiful poem, confused comparison
But part of the speech gets a bit over the top. Inspired by the Bundestag commemoration of the GDR uprising in 1953 on the previous Friday, Habeck freely quotes the resistant singer Wolf Biermann: “Don’t be bitter in these bitter times. Don’t be frightened in these terrible times. Don’t let yourself be consumed, use your time.” Biermann wrote “Encouragement” for the poet Peter Huchel and for himself, both of whom were harassed by the GDR.
Habeck’s equation of the GDR persecution with the situation of his party is not too far from it Tweet by the green Munich city council member Bernd Schreyer removed. He had compared the current situation of the Greens with the Jews persecuted under National Socialism – and resigned his political offices a day later.
The nerves are currently very thin in the party. Nouripour explains: “The political enemy is not here in the room.” His co-chairman Ricarda Lang warns of a “right-wing culture war” that is being pursued not only by the AfD, but also by the CDU and CSU. It’s “not the easiest time to be in government right now,” says parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge. “Sometimes it feels like walking uphill with a backpack. I’ll admit, sometimes it’s not fun,” admits Federal Managing Director Emily Büning. And MEP Erik Maquart, who acted as spokesman for the critics in the dispute over the EU asylum compromise, asserts: “We all have confidence in our management staff.” It’s like a single “Hack your arms!”.
Management has to fight
While discussions are taking place in the large hall, there is a lot going on behind the scenes. There are more than 40 amendments to a position paper by the party executive on refugee policy. It was not originally on the agenda of the state council. After the excitement about Germany’s approval of the EU asylum compromise, the party leadership drew up the text so that the critics would have something to work through. It’s always better than convening an expensive special party conference on the subject, which parts of the party had already called for in those excited days.
“We are still intensively involved in the negotiations on the amendments,” confesses Büning on the main stage, while the decisions are made in side rooms and chat groups. Bit by bit, the Greens leadership is working on the Green Youth and a group of European politicians who want to sharpen the position paper significantly. They want to write in that the green federal ministers should never have agreed to the asylum compromise, that was “wrong”. They want to put Annalena Baerbock in chains for the rest of the procedure: If the EU’s asylum policy is not significantly more humane, the Foreign Minister must not agree to a deal.
A party that denies its most popular minister legroom: What would the opposition and the media do with such a vote by the state council? Not a good thing, which is why the Greens’ leadership adopts as many of the required changes as possible and the applicants in return refrain from using the harshest wording. In the end, the party youth only refused to be swayed at one point, but because their comrades-in-arms around Marquart closed ranks with the party leadership, the only vote for the Green Youth was clearly lost.
Even before the voting is over, the communicative battle for the authority to interpret what is happening begins, both internally and externally. Has the foreign minister’s base shown her limits here? Did the Greens board avert a further escalation in the midst of this critical time with a lot of commitment and skill? Both are true. The question is which aspect is emphasized. But maybe it doesn’t matter because the Greens – as they did after the Lützerath dispute at the federal party conference in autumn – can continue for the time being. And then it will soon be vacation time.