arms exports
Greens wrestle with peace party role at party conference
Robert Habeck at the Green Party Congress in Bonn. photo
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
The Greens’ willingness to fight has been subdued. Even the decision to use nuclear power was passed without any angry speeches. Arms exports, on the other hand, were already the subject of heated debates in advance.
At their party conference in Bonn, the Greens tried to reconcile their tradition as a peace party with the arms exports to Saudi Arabia that have already been decided upon and pragmatic relations with autocratic regimes. Around 800 delegates expressed great solidarity on Saturday for refugees from Afghanistan and protesters in Iran.
In the Ukraine war, Germany must help wherever possible, “because we see that these weapons save lives,” said party leader Omid Nouripour. He called out to the roughly 800 delegates on the second day of the meeting: “I know it’s not easy for a peace party, but peace isn’t easy.”
The Greens stand firmly by the side of the women-led protests in Iran, affirmed Nouripour, earning thunderous applause. This also applies to women in Ukraine and Saudi Arabia. Human rights and women’s rights are “non-negotiable” for this party.
Intensive discussion about arms deliveries
Despite an extensive ban on exports, the traffic light government recently gave the go-ahead for the delivery of equipment and ammunition to Saudi Arabia worth 36 million euros. It is a joint program with Italy, Spain and Great Britain. Before the start of the three-day party conference, which began on Friday, there were intensive discussions about motions that critically assess this in order to find compromises.
The former federal government had largely stopped arms exports to Saudi Arabia, partly because of the kingdom’s involvement in the Yemen war and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The coalition agreement between the SPD, Greens and FDP states: “We will not issue export licenses for armaments to states as long as they can be shown to be directly involved in the Yemen war.”