Greens: the base opposes the top of the Greens – politics

They celebrated for hours on the first evening of the party congress. Have praised each other, especially for campaigning and governing. And then there are still nice greetings from the base and gentle stinks against this whole harmony. It’s the issue of grassroots democracy, once again, that’s between the top and bottom of the Greens.

Second day of the virtual Green Party Congress, the election of the new party chairmen is on the agenda in the Berlin Velodrom on Saturday. Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour will be elected as successors to Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck in the afternoon. That it will succeed is already considered certain. Before that happens, however, a few fundamental issues will be fought out at the party congress, not to the advantage of the party leadership.

Because after the emotional farewell to party leader Annalena Baerbock on Friday and a rather sober farewell for co-boss Robert Habeck, after all sorts of praises from the governing Greens to the Realpolitik to be enforced by them and the art of compromise, there are rather unpleasant topics on the program on Saturday morning.

For example, there is application S-01. Behind this acronym is a call for help from the party leadership, which is drowning in a flood of applications at party conferences. At the last federal delegates’ conference, of all things in the difficult initial phase of the green federal election campaign, the base presented around 3,500 amendments. What many members of the Greens see as evidence of high levels of commitment is a medium-sized nightmare for the federal executive, simply because of the sheer volume. Because every proposal has to be weighed up, discussed and, if possible, woven into a compromise.

The motion of the federal executive board is “almost indecent,” complains a Berlin Green

Federal Managing Director Michael Kellner had therefore advocated changing the statutes earlier. Vain. On Saturday, the federal executive board will make a new attempt. The number of signatories required for an amendment is to be increased, flexibly depending on the current membership of the party. At present, around 125 votes would then be required instead of 20 for each amendment, the party leadership demands.

Of course, the project at the party congress calls the base on the plan. The motion by the federal executive board is “almost indecent,” complains the Berlin Green Thomas Wolf at home in front of his screen. “Our party lives from and through participation,” warns the young delegate Hannah Heller from Speyer. The “functionaries” dominated every party conference anyway. “We see ourselves here as guardians of grassroots democracy,” says Yvonne Plaul from Lübeck, under the domestic watercolor. Nabila Ghanem reports from Soest that she does not want the say of minorities and rural areas to be curtailed. Because there are often only a few supporters for political issues.

In the end there is a compromise: An amendment now needs 50 votes

The party leadership, it can be felt, is heading towards defeat. “We don’t think that’s grass-roots participation, it’s sham democracy,” Annalena Baerbock said. Everyone knows that before party conferences “no one read all of these motions” and “no one really knew what was in them”. Habeck also goes on stage again. It does not help. The still incumbent party executive is overruled, with a three-quarters majority. In the future, it is a compromise that 50 votes should be required for an amendment.

But there was also criticism on Saturday morning. It’s about corona bonuses that the federal executive board paid out in 2020. The prosecutor is investigating. A delegate from Gelsenkirchen says she refuses to relieve the board of directors for the 2020 budget before the errors have been cleared up. The party leadership is somewhat contrite. “With the knowledge we have today, we would no longer make such a decision,” admits Federal Treasurer Marc Urbatsch – and that it is a “political maximum punishment” to have the topic served up for the third time. However, the board of directors will then be relieved.

Open detailed view

On Friday, Winfried Kretschmann, the Green Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, clearly addressed the mistakes in the federal election campaign. The Greens veteran complained in the evening that the basic direction in the election campaign was not right. He does not name anyone responsible and does not address anyone, but one can read in his words at least indirect criticism of the top candidate and current Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

Kretschmann criticizes that the Greens only put change at the center of their campaign during the election campaign. That overwhelmed many people. “We have to balance our message of change even more with a promise of security,” says the Green Prime Minister. “We didn’t do that enough in the federal election campaign.” The Greens have shown too little that they are not about change for the sake of change, but about “preserving change for things that are dear to us all”. Kretschmann does not mention what is probably the greatest impertinence for many non-Green voters, that a comparatively young Green with no government experience wanted to become Chancellor. He must have his reasons.