Federal Green Youth Congress: “Co-governing is not an end in itself”

It was a meeting full of self-confidence: at the Federal Green Youth Congress, clear conditions for a traffic light coalition were formulated. There was a rejection of the “future-hostile policy” of the Union.

It was the first big meeting since the beginning of the corona pandemic: around 500 members of the Green Youth together in one exhibition hall. A hall full of self-confidence. “The Union has been voted out and everyone is looking at us,” said Georg Kurz, one of the two outgoing federal spokesmen, who had to give up his office at the federal congress in Erfurt.

And Kurz calculated: The Green Youth now has 18,000 members, which is almost a sixth of the entire party. Of the 118 Green MPs in the new Bundestag, 27 come from the youth organization – and that means for the Greens: They are not yet 28 years old.

Full power for the boys. “We only participate in government if something really changes,” said Sarah-Lee Heinrich tagesschau.de. She is just 20 years old and had recently been elected as one of the two new federal spokespersons.

Criticism of “policies that are hostile to the future” of the Union

There was a clear rejection of the Union from the Green Youth. Jamaica? It’s out of the question. The 500 members in Erfurt agreed on this. The Union stands for a “policy that is hostile to the future”. “They put the profits of the few above the interests of the many,” says a paper entitled “Climate Protection, Justice, Solidarity – Our Requirements for a New Government”, which was adopted by an overwhelming majority.

For the young Greens, this does not mean that the traffic light with the SPD and FDP would now be a sure-fire success. The impression was that it could fit with the SPD. But the similarities with the Social Democrats should “not be lost at the expense of the FDP’s policy of rich and clientele” – this is also how the paper is distributed against the Liberals. What is needed is a coalition that “shows the radical market perversions of the FDP the red card”. So Lysander-Noel Liermann from Baden-Württemberg shouted into the hall, who was elected as an assessor on the federal board of the Green Youth.

The black zero should be over

These are not exactly the best conditions for productive cooperation between the Greens and the Liberals. Because it did not stop with verbal attacks against the FDP, there were also resolutions that should ring the alarm bells for Christian Lindner and his negotiating team. Above all, the demand for a fiscal policy “that finally puts an end to the black zero and removes the debt brake from the Basic Law” – as formulated in the lead motion “No time for small steps – for a policy from below”, which also met with broad approval .

It also says: “Bring the dough” and “No profits with our rent”. The young Greens expressly agreed to the demands of the Berlin initiative, which won the referendum on the expropriation of very large residential groups.

“Hartz IV is the biggest shit”

That doesn’t sound like looking forward to a coalition with the FDP, which, as is well known, sees things very differently. What if in the end there is no agreement on a traffic light coalition agreement? So it might be. “Co-governing the Green Party is not an end in itself,” stated the Green Youth. “We only support a government coalition if there is noticeable improvement in people’s lives and the climate crisis is tackled consistently.” From the mouths of 18,000 members of the Green Youth, this is definitely a threat, after all, the Greens want a possible coalition agreement – if it should exist – to be approved by the members in an online ballot.

Sarah-Lee Heinrich, the new federal spokeswoman, emphasized the social points of the green program. “Hartz IV is the biggest shit”, so she began her acclaimed application speech. And spoke from experience. Because she grew up as the daughter of a single Hartz IV recipient. “We are children who watch their parents as they quietly endure poor working conditions because the Hartz IV alternative would be much worse.”

“Fully satisfied” with the sounding

And yet you don’t have to worry that the Green Youth will bring down the traffic light because the FDP should also participate. Sarah-Lee told Heinrich that she was “completely satisfied” with the way the sounding had gone so far tagesschau.de. “The exploration team gets as much out of it as is possible.” And despite all the strong tones against the liberals: The federal congress was not a rejection of the FDP. “We’re excluding Jamaica, but not the traffic lights.”

That’s what Heinrich says – and yet he immediately puts another threat afterwards. “If the FDP tries to clear away questions about higher wages, questions about training place guarantees, because they don’t want to step on the feet of employers too much, then we will definitely be there and be loud.”