Federal party conference
Greens for binding standards for wages in Europe
The top candidate for the European election campaign, Terry Reintke (center), was elected to the so-called party council. photo
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
For the Greens, the party conference in Karlsruhe was the longest and largest in their history. Towards the end, personnel decisions were on the agenda – and debates on European domestic and justice policy.
The Greens started the final phase of their four-day marathon party conference with elections for an advisory party committee. Among other things, the top candidate for the European election campaign, Terry Reintke, was announced on Sunday Karlsruhe elected to the so-called party council.
On Saturday, the delegates discussed and approved several chapters of the European election program. In social policy, the Greens want to campaign for the European Union to set binding standards for wages, strengthening trade unions and against arbitrariness and exploitation.
Many delegates celebrated and danced until the early hours of Sunday morning after a heated debate on asylum policy. The Green Youth had submitted a motion with which they wanted to prohibit ministers and parliamentary groups in the federal and state governments from agreeing to “further tightening of asylum law”. There was no majority for that. Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had warned of far-reaching consequences for their own ability to act and that of other Green politicians.
Green youth leader on asylum: criticism has reached the party leadership
The co-chair of the Green Youth, Katharina Stolla, nevertheless saw support for the youth organization’s far-reaching criticism of asylum policy within her own party leadership. “This party conference sends a clear signal: the party is dissatisfied with the traffic light’s asylum policy course, for which the Greens are jointly responsible,” she explained.
The Federal Executive Board only suffered a defeat on Saturday in a vote on the EU’s planned trade agreement with the South American economic community Mercosur. The party conference called for renegotiations to put an end to the “intensive mining of raw materials in the global south for consumption in the global north”.
Talks on the Mercosur agreement have been going on for years. There has actually been an agreement in principle with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay since 2019, but it has not been implemented due to ongoing concerns – for example about rainforest protection. The election of self-proclaimed “anarcho-capitalist” Javier Milei as president of Argentina could create additional challenges.