In the face of the catastrophe in western Germany, Greens federal manager Kellner calls for greater efforts against the climate crisis. In an interview with ntv.de, he explains how they want to get into the Chancellery for this. Currently the party is below 20 percent.
ntv.de: Germany laments a large number of fatalities from floods. On the one hand, a drama that seems to confirm your warnings about climate change. On the other hand, almost too tragic to campaign with. How do you relate to this?
Michael Kellner: The situation in the affected regions is dramatic, the images are shocking. My condolences go first of all to all those people who mourn relatives or worry about missing people. Now is the time to help and save, that is the order of the day. A big thank you goes to the rescue workers who are doing such an important job right now. And clearly we also have to talk about the causes and finally treat the climate crisis as a serious threat and therefore with great urgency, take precautionary measures and take care of climate adaptation. Too much time has been overslept in the past few decades. It is not enough if Armin Laschet and Markus Söder discover the topic of climate protection after climate disasters.
Robert Habeck started the election campaign this week with a tour of the coast; you yourself presented the green poster campaign in Berlin. Annalena Baerbock is not featured there as a candidate for chancellor, Mr. Habeck can often be seen with her. Do you not trust Ms. Baerbock to do this on her own?
Yes, of course. But we have always made it clear that we are about leadership in the team. That’s what made us strong. We’d be stupid not to hold on to it any longer. That’s why we decided a long time ago to design the campaign like this. It has been shot and printed for a long time. And of course, in the course of the election campaign, the campaign will come to a head with Annalena Baerbock.
Regarding Ms. Baerbock’s corrections to her curriculum vitae, the late reporting of additional income, a communications advisor recently said that before you target the Chancellery, the Greens should have looked at the “House of Cards”. Were you too clueless?
We made our own mistakes, that’s part of it, we get annoyed about that. But now we’re looking ahead.
Now the offensive is to begin and the green election campaign will also take place on the Internet. What will it look like?
We want to talk to people online as well as talk about our topics in the traditional way on site. This week, I’m doing a series of gardening talks in my constituency in Brandenburg in an analogue way outside with people.
In the RTL / ntv trend barometer you still do not make it back to 20 percent this week. Coastal and garden tours sound very nice, but is that enough? Don’t you have to address more people quickly? The Chancellery seems relatively far away at the moment.
I believe that you don’t collect votes at your desk, but rather by going out and talking to people, for example about equal living conditions between town and country. In the municipalities alone there is an investment backlog of 149 billion euros, the total public investment requirement for the next ten years to make this country fit again is even 450 billion euros. Especially in the field of education, transport, rail and energy supply. We want to invest there. And in the end, that’s what it’s about: to achieve great things with this country and society. And get as strong as you can to be able to do that.
Where does this value come from?
Even Armin Laschet admits the failures of the last 16 years when he calls for a decade of modernization. The 149 billion euros to which I am referring are the result of the KfW municipal panel for the cities and municipalities, the 450 billion euros have been estimated by the economic research institutes of the trade unions (IMK) and the business associations (IW Cologne).
Speaking of references – you can campaign with your own party program score, it becomes more difficult to restore lost credibility. How do you intend to repair the damage by September?
The Greens have a personable candidate who is driven by passion for content. Many people notice that it was simply a fluff of absurd little things to harm the candidate. With her and the Greens, we are fighting with full force for the urgently needed change of direction towards a future-oriented policy that tackles problems and seeks solutions.
How do you make sure that people agree with you? After you were on par with the Union with 28 percent approval in the trend barometer at the beginning of May, things only went down for two months.
I am convinced that the closer the choice gets, the more it becomes clear what it is about: Who has well-thought-out ideas and a clear compass for the future? And what I am currently doing in the Union does not do justice to the tasks that are there: to invest in the country and in climate protection and to promote it, to pursue a policy of social cohesion and to narrow the social gap. But instead of answering clearly, there is obviously a mess. If you hear Armin Laschet speak, he seems to have correctly recognized that there is no scope for tax cuts, but if you read his party’s program, it says the opposite. And the CSU says, yes, there must be tax relief, Friedrich Merz as well. That in turn means, however, that the social gap is widening, like just recently Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) has proven. On the other hand, we say clearly: In tax policy, we want to tax the top incomes a little more so that the lower and middle incomes benefit more. If you want to narrow the social gap, then we are the right address and the Union is the wrong one.
Could be difficult to work with later.
An election campaign is about political differences. They are sharpened by the debates, there is an election for that. This election campaign is about green versus black. The question of coalitions comes after an election, not before.
Your campaign slogans should radiate optimism: “The future won’t happen. We’ll make it.” or “Our country can do a lot if you let it”. Are you not running the risk of losing sight of the urgency you see with climate protection, for example?
We have had terrible storms here in Germany in the last few days and weeks, we see heat waves in Spain, extreme heat in Canada and California, in Asia monsoons and floods. The consequences of global warming are becoming noticeable, and the pressure to act is increasing. We make that clear. At the same time, we want to encourage people to take action. Because only if we tackle it now can we slow down the climate crisis a little. It is detrimental to the climate and to German industry that Peter Altmaier delayed the expansion of renewable energies so severely.
You recently wanted to get into a substantive debate with your energy money as a social compensation for the higher CO2 price. Then you were quickly back as a prohibition party that would drive up the price of fuel. How do you want to prevent more complicated topics from always flying around your ears?
To do this, we have to explain, explain, convince – on the marketplaces as well as on the Internet. It is like this: if green climate protection prevails, the German automotive industry will be preserved and not hit the tree because it will not manage to switch to electromobility. The economy is now much further ahead than parts of the CDU and CSU. We want the CO2 price to be paid back to the people, yes, and those who use less get more money. So we want to increase acceptance, because it is about preserving the basis of life. For us and for future generations.
Frauke Niemeyer spoke to Michael Kellner
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