The countdown to the state elections is also visible to all visitors to the Green party headquarters in Munich. 202 days, six hours, 55 minutes and 51 seconds is the display when the top candidates Katharina Schulze and Ludwig Hartmann enter the conference room with the state chairmen Eva Lettenbauer and Thomas von Sarnowski on Monday.
As of now, with a view to polls, the scenario in October would be like this: The Greens achieve a respectable result like in 2018, slightly below the 20 percent mark, and become the second strongest force; but far from any prospect of power, Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) continues to rule comfortably with the free voters. With their election program, the Greens want to ensure that this changes by October. “The fuel for our campaign engine,” says Katharina Schulze when presenting the draft. The 85 pages formulate the claim in the title: “Government program”.
The green leadership quartet is very proud of the genesis of the draft program, which still has to be approved by a state party conference in Erlangen in May: The participation process, in which more than 1000 members got involved, including citizens, experts and craftsmen, took almost a year , founders or social workers. “No program from three party officials in the back room,” says Schulze. Country chief Sarnowski sounds like he does it in the children’s chocolate ad when he praises him. The program includes “fresh ideas, good solutions – and an extra portion of sustainability”.
In said advertisement, it was disputed how big the extra portion of milk would be in the end. The ecological DNA of the party runs through the green program quite clearly. The word climate is mentioned 141 times, nature 56 times. Ludwig Hartmann lists the climate crisis, the water crisis and the soil crisis, all of which “cry out” for a different policy.
The party wants a “water cent” and “end luxury road construction in Bavaria”
Among other things, the Greens want to introduce a “water cent” for removing the resource in order to finally give the industry an “incentive to use it sparingly”. Renewable energies, rail expansion, “end luxury road construction in Bavaria”, organic food in state canteens, measures against surface consumption, “a policy that thinks before the excavator comes” – all of this, according to Hartmann, is here in Bayern feasible, is nothing where the responsibility can be shifted to Berlin or Brussels. The party calls for a “climate check” for all laws in the Free State. And even a relaxation of the debt brake in the Bavarian constitution – for “limited borrowing” for future investments such as climate-friendly mobility or energy supply.
Other “highlights”, as Schulze calls it: voting age 16 years, a state-owned anti-discrimination agency. The Police Duties Act is to be reformed and the Bavarian border police abolished. Children and young people have to be “taken out of society’s blind corners”. Example on a small scale: It cannot be that children cannot swim after primary school. The aim is to remedy this: renovate municipal baths, train teachers, cooperate more intelligently with clubs.
And the migration? For weeks, a “memorandum for a different migration policy in Germany” has been haunting the party, including in Bavaria. The paper calls for order and control, including more deportations. And that the Greens should be honest about the topic and problems of immigration should not be taboo. Farewell to “multicultural idealism,” says some of the signatories. This debate does not seem to be reflected in the draft program, for which members can now submit amendments: The good two sides, placed between women’s shelters and queer politics, express that migration is basically just a question of management. No reason for course corrections.
Migration is a “productive force” in view of the aging society, says Schulze. The main problem is that the CSU has ignored in the state government and in the grand coalition in the federal government that Germany is an immigration country. Therefore, “efficient structures” were now missing. The program was coordinated with the Greens in the municipalities. It demands, for example, the dissolution of the so-called anchor centers – collective accommodations that already have deportations in their names. Refugees should instead be housed decentrally.
That leaves the government claim. As is well known, the Greens are fighting to “become so strong that nobody can get past us,” Hartmann had specified in January at a parliamentary group meeting: “20 percent plus a very, very big X.” With the weakness of the traffic light camp, there is currently no other power option than that Söder would have to reconsider his refusal of black and green. Hartmann asserted on Monday when asked that there would definitely not be greens in a state government “that stands for business as usual”. By the way, the bound program has a green cover sheet, complete with sunflowers. And is held together by black cardboard and binding.