Berlin The Greens are ostensibly in a celebratory mood ahead of their three-day meeting in Bonn. For the first time in three years, the leadership of the Greens is again facing a party conference at which the delegates are in full force.
And then there is the good state election result in Lower Saxony on Sunday. The Greens were able to book 14.5 percent of the votes, after 8.7 percent in 2017. But is that enough to drown out the displeasure that there is undoubtedly behind the scenes?
Politically difficult weeks lie behind the party. There was trouble about the originally planned gas levy, which Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) first had to defend and then collect again.
The decision to supply arms to Saudi Arabia is also problematic for the party. After all, the Greens have been vehemently demanding a ban on arms exports to crisis and war regions for years. The country is currently waging a war in Yemen.
The planned phase-out of coal by 2030 in North Rhine-Westphalia plays into the hands of the Greens, but at the same time the climate movement accuses them of betraying the Paris climate protection agreement because, in view of the energy crisis, two lignite-fired power plants in the North Rhine-Westphalia region are to run longer than previously planned. The village of Lützerath, a symbol of the climate protection movement, is to be demolished in order to mine coal.
During a vigil and a symbolic sit-in in front of the NRW Economics Ministry, a demonstrator holds up an election poster by Green NRW Economics Minister Mona Neubaur.
(Photo: dpa)
The debate about the extension of nuclear power plants is also not very pleasant for the Greens. For parts of the base, the decided stretching operation of two kilns already goes too far. This can also be seen from the applications that were submitted right away for the start of the party conference on Friday evening.
The emergency motion ES-02 from the Vulkaneifel district association is on the agenda. Name: “Not a day longer – switch off all nuclear power plants”. This is followed by: “Hold on to the nuclear phase-out – no extension of service life and also no stretching”. Then come the motions: “Nuclear power – no thanks!” and “Nuclear power – not again!”.
The message to the party leadership: We won’t make it as easy as you imagine. After all, the party fought for decades to phase out nuclear power. Some in the party fear that he is now at risk. After all, the pressure from the population and from the coalition partner FDP on the Greens on the issue is immense. A majority of Germans advocates not only the stretching operation, but also longer nuclear power plant running times. 41 percent even call for the construction of new nuclear power plants.
>> Read here: No green light for Habeck’s nuclear power plant term draft law – Lindner annoys the Minister of Economic Affairs
The coalition partner FDP has been pushing for months to extend the term to 2024. The situation in the coalition is such that the Liberals in the cabinet have so far blocked the law for the extended operation of two nuclear power plants. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) now wants to decide on the question, but that doesn’t make the situation any easier for the Greens.
Polls reflect displeasure
The lower the temperatures fall and the more expensive gas and electricity become, the more difficult it is for the party leadership to communicate the course towards nuclear power to the population. The resentment about this is already noticeable in surveys. Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock are losing popularity there. The Greens also lose in the Sunday question. In the summer they were still 23 percent – and are now falling below the 20 percent mark.
The economics minister and the foreign minister are losing popularity in polls.
(Photo: dpa)
Things will be correspondingly lively in Bonn. The party gives itself plenty of time for discussions and meets on Friday until late in the evening: Habeck’s speech on energy supply in winter is scheduled for “approximately 10:40 p.m.”, the final vote on this complex of topics for 11:30 p.m.
The arms exports to Saudi Arabia will cause discussions on Saturday when the topic “Peace and security policy in the turning point” is on the agenda. Climate policy and thus also the coal phase-out demanded by the Greens for 2030 is a topic on Sunday.
“Intra-party balancing act” in the Greens
The question is how much Economics Minister Habeck in particular can still expect of the party. Hardly in the federal government, the former eco- and peace party had to support decisions that were not found in any Green party program due to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine: special assets for the Bundeswehr and arms deliveries to a war zone, for example.
“The situation in Ukraine is forcing us to do things that we could not have imagined a few months ago; the delivery of heavy weapons is certainly one of them,” said party leader Omid Nouripour in the spring.
The political scientist Michael Wehner, professor at the University of Freiburg, speaks of an “internal party balancing act” that the Greens have been doing for a long time, with more or less big stomach ache. So far, however, there has been no loud resistance.
>> Read here: Nuclear power plant reserve, gas levy, TV appearance: this is how the failed decisions are piling up at Habeck
If the Greens like to justify this by saying that the party takes responsibility in difficult times, Wehner gives another reason: “The Greens are now a party that is more oriented towards maintaining power than towards programmatic content,” Wehner told the Handelsblatt.
With the FDP’s demand not only for the continued operation of the nuclear power plants that are still running, but also for the restart of nuclear power plants that have already been switched off, he sees the pain threshold as being reached. “That could put the coalition to a breaking point,” said Wehner. “The Greens cannot expect their voters to opt out, despite all their realpolitik approach,” he is convinced.
Wehner sees the ups and downs of the polls calmly, as does Habeck’s swing at gas allocation and a botched appearance on ARD. “The expectations of quick and smooth crisis management are high, which leads to volatile sympathy curves,” explained Wehner. “But the balance will be drawn at the end of the coalition period.”
More: This is to prevent a complete power outage in winter