Monday, December 6th, 2021
Party accepts traffic light contract
Greens find posts for riders who are unable to attend
By Sebastian Huld and Philip Scupin
As the only one of the traffic light parties, the Greens ask their members about the coalition agreement. 86 percent approval hardly hide the fact that participation is weak. Instead, a personnel conflict seems to have been resolved.
After Cem Özdemir and not Anton Hofreiter is to become Federal Minister of Agriculture, the immediate future of the outgoing parliamentary group leader Hofreiter has been clarified. As RTL and ntv learned from parliamentary groups, Bayer is to become chairman of the European Committee. That is not to be compared with the cabinet post hoped for by Hofreiter. As chairman of the committee, Hofreiter retains weight in the parliamentary group and is taking the path that Özdemir had taken: this time, the Stuttgart resident, who was directly elected this time, relinquished the chairmanship of the party after his party’s disappointing performance in the 2017 federal election and became chairman of the transport committee, where he stands Specialist politician made a name.
“It is a particularly emotional moment for me,” said Özdemir when the party presented its ministers to the upcoming federal government. “It was not sung by the cradle that I am here as this country’s minister-designate,” said Özdemir, whose parents came to Germany as guest workers 60 years ago as part of the recruitment agreement with Turkey.
Baerbock and Spiegel are the youngest
Regarding the conflict over Hofreiter and Özdemir, chairwoman Annalena Baerbock said that the selection process was not easy for the Greens either: “Then things will jerk in party life”. It is crucial, however, to address conflicts openly. This is how the Greens wanted to do it in the government. At least outwardly, however, the personnel conflict was not openly addressed. On the other hand, the left wing, disappointed because of Hofreiter’s disembarkation, had expressed its displeasure both internally and externally.
“I would say that we have mapped diverse Germany, in competence and in person,” said the incoming Foreign Minister Baerbock. With the designated Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, the Greens, along with the Social Democrat Klara Geywitz, are one of two East Germans in the cabinet. Anne Spiegel, who is to take over the family ministry, is, along with Baerbock, the youngest minister in the cabinet. Both will be 41 years old on December 15th.
As the upcoming State Secretary for Culture, 66-year-old Claudia Roth is the oldest in the Federal Cabinet, and also the only one from Bavaria, after the CSU had claimed several ministerial posts for men and women from the Free State for 16 years. “I do not intend to put Bavarian interests in the foreground,” said Roth. “But I’m happy about it.” It is a mistake to believe that the interests of Bavaria and the CSU are congruent.
Only 48 percent of the members for traffic light contract
One day before the coalition agreement was signed, the top representatives of the Greens were looking forward to their government work. They rated the voting results of the member survey as a tailwind. 86 percent of the valid votes cast are a “solid” result, said Federal Managing Director Michael Kellner, who is changing as State Secretary in Habeck’s Ministry of Economics and Climate. Of the total number of 125,125 members entitled to vote, 61,164 votes in favor are only 48 percent.
The turnout of 57 percent indicates that the enthusiasm of some members is limited. The fact that a clear yes was foreseeable may also have slowed down participation in the low-threshold online voting. Roth, who has known the party longest of all the Greens in the cabinet, nevertheless insisted on a “mega” result. “86 percent: Chapeau!” Said the woman from Augsburg.