Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann has often tried to get the Green federal party to follow his super-realist course. In the 2013 federal election campaign, for example, he warned against the tax increases that his party had in its election manifesto. Enthusiasm for the intervention from Stuttgart was, to put it mildly, limited.
A year later, Kretschmann’s government made an asylum compromise possible in the Bundesrat, which declared Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and what is now North Macedonia as so-called safe third countries. This meant that asylum applications from these countries could be rejected more easily as unfounded. Kretschmann’s party colleagues in Berlin were furious, and there was even talk of treason.
Before the 2021 federal election, the only Green state premier spoke out several times in favor of choosing Robert Habeck as the Green candidate for chancellor. The party then went into the election campaign with Annalena Baerbock, but she did not win the chancellorship.
Migration has “the power to divide our country,” warns Kretschmann
So one cannot say that Kretschmann’s attempts to get the party to agree with his line have been a resounding success. Nevertheless, on this Wednesday morning he steps up to the lectern in the Stuttgart state parliament with a message that is also addressed to his party. It is 9.15 a.m. A good hour later it becomes public that the federal executive board of the Greens is resigning. It is perhaps not exactly what Kretschmann would have wanted as the background music for his speech.
“Strengthen security, regulate migration, prevent radicalization,” is the title of the manuscript of the “government information” that the State Ministry has put on the parliamentary agenda at short notice. Migration, Kretschmann now says, has “the power to divide our country, it has the power to divide the whole of Europe.” That must not be allowed to happen, and that is why it is a matter of “limiting irregular migration.”
At this point, the speech is interrupted by loud applause, and if the impression is not misleading, the members of the CDU, Kretschmann’s coalition partner, are clapping somewhat more enthusiastically than the members of the Green Party. Of course, the Prime Minister continues, the individual right to asylum is not up for discussion, and of course Germany needs well-educated people “who will relieve the burden on our labor market in times of demographic change.” Now the Green Party members are also clapping with verve.
Dangerous individuals and violent offenders should be deported more quickly
The reason for the speech is a new security package. In response to the Islamist attacks in Solingen and Mannheim, the state’s security authorities are to receive more money, personnel and powers. The special task force “Dangerous Foreigners” is to be given additional forces, which is intended to speed up the deportation of dangerous people and violent criminals in Baden-Württemberg. The coalition is creating a new state security and anti-terrorism center under the umbrella of the State Criminal Police Office. Mobile advisory teams are to be deployed in refugee shelters to raise awareness of the dangers of Islamism.
The package of measures that North Rhine-Westphalia decided on after Solingen serves as a blueprint for Baden-Württemberg. Together with the two black-green governments of NRW and Schleswig-Holstein, Baden-Württemberg wants to campaign in the Bundesrat for accelerated procedures for refugees from countries with a recognition rate of less than five percent.
The speech was also unofficially addressed to the Green federal party, which Kretschmann once again believes is not on track. When asked about the reasons for the disastrous performance in the recent state elections, the Swabian recently advised his party to “look at themselves”. He also had a concrete tip ready: “The party as a whole must be clear on the issue of migration.” In the state parliament, Kretschmann now spelled out what this clarity should look like. Anyone who claims that the issue of migration is only being hyped up to distract from other problems “fails to recognize how big the challenge really is.”
The CDU is now ahead of the Greens in polls in Baden-Württemberg
Kretschmann may be hoping that his position will be heard by the federal party this time. After all, the Greens are in a deep crisis, and in Stuttgart they believe that in such a situation it would be worth taking a look at Baden-Württemberg’s recipe for success.
But Kretschmann is almost certainly also trying to preserve Cem Özdemir’s remaining chances. According to internal planning, the Federal Minister of Agriculture wants to declare his willingness to run as the Green Party’s top candidate in the state elections in 2026 as early as October. The circumstances could be more positive, however.
Although Kretschmann’s Greens are doing better in polls than the federal party, the prospects of continuing to provide the head of government in the future are very bleak. In the forecasts, the CDU is racing ahead of the Greens, with the gap currently standing at ten percentage points.
And CDU state leader Manuel Hagel is already flirting openly with FDP parliamentary group leader Hans-Ulrich Rülke. In his speech in the Stuttgart state parliament, Rülke takes up the turbulence in Berlin with obvious pleasure. Turning to Kretschmann, he asks: “Is the resignation of the Green federal executive board part of your security package?”