Starting today, the Green Youth will meet for their federal congress. The youth organization is dissatisfied with the image the Greens present in the traffic light coalition. The accusation is: too many compromises.
Timon Dzienus likes to spread a good mood. The co-leader of the Green Youth comes across as friendly and usually has a smile on his face. Even if the junior organization of Alliance 90/The Greens is currently miles away from the parent party in terms of content – which is causing a bad mood among many members.
Dzienus speaks in an interview with the SWR of increasing dissatisfaction from conflict to conflict. The Green Youth is bothered by the performance of the Greens within the traffic light coalition. The party voted for the Bundeswehr to be financially upgraded, for nuclear power plants to run longer than planned and for migration rules to be tightened.
For 27-year-old Dzienus it is clear: the Green ministers in the cabinet are not asserting their demands well enough against their coalition partners. According to him, they do not advocate the green ideals consistently enough and are therefore often outvoted.
Criticism of the Greens in the traffic lights
The saying “The smarter gives in” is a problem for the Greens, says Dzienus: “If the smarter gives in, then the stupid rule. And in this case that is the inhumanity in Europe that is becoming more and more prevalent.”
The co-head of the Green Youth is primarily concerned with migration policy. He wants less isolation and more solidarity with refugees. “Because in the next few decades, many more people will have to flee, also due to the climate catastrophe.”
Green youth sees a shift to the right
Dzienus sees a shift to the right in Germany, an inhumane asylum policy, which, in his opinion, the Greens must fight vehemently – instead of agreeing to stricter asylum rules at EU level, as Green ministers have done within the federal government.
But his co-chair sees less and less support among the population for a more humane refugee policy. Sarah-Lee Heinrich speaks of strong social uncertainty. “This is a breeding ground for the political right to divide society,” says the 22-year-old co-boss in an interview with ARD capital studio. She calls on the traffic light government to take greater action against this uncertainty among people and to initiate a change of course towards greater social justice.
The Green Youth sees itself as the social wing of the party and is traditionally left-leaning politically. The youth organization has around 16,000 members. The leadership of the Green Youth does not reveal the exact number. This means that the movement has slightly more members than the Young Liberals. The Junge Union is the young political organization with the most members, around 100,000. The JuSos have around 70,000.
New leadership duo is elected
750 members have registered for the Federal Congress of the Green Youth in Leipzig. In addition to the traffic light halftime, they especially want to debate how the Green Youth is positioning itself for next year. Thematically and personally: Heinrich and Dzienus are leaving the top of the movement after two years. That’s what the rules say.
Both have announced that they will remain politically active, but have not yet revealed any details. The new dual leadership of the Green Youth is almost set: So far only the duo of Svenja Appuhn and Katharina Stolla, a meteorologist and a medical student, both 25 years old, are running.
Spontaneous candidacies are still possible, but are not considered very promising. The Green Youth will probably have the first all-female leadership team in twelve years. The motto of the two is: climate protection in turbo mode. This means that a classic green theme is likely to shape the course of the Green Youth for the near future.