“We are changing Germany. Our opponents want to marginalize us”
Trittin thinks the mood is not “despondent”
At the start of the small party conference in Bad Vilbel, Hesse, Green party leader Ricarda Lang called for the green core issues to be adhered to. On the fringes of the party conference, WELT reporter Daniel Koop spoke to Green veteran Jürgen Trittin about the mood in his party.
At the start of the small party congress in Hesse, Robert Habeck warns the Greens against longing for the opposition role. Party leader Ricarda Lang agrees: “We won’t go back into the niche, we’re going to expand right now.”
Dhe Green Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck warns his party against “allowing itself to be driven into a niche” in the face of resistance and “pressure from all sides”. “We are changing Germany” and “never before has so much been done for climate protection as in the last 15 months,” he said at the small party conference on Saturday, emphasizing the government’s work to date. The country is on the way to “climate-neutral prosperity”. But changes are always unreasonable. Therefore, the Greens would have to be careful to “create a political majority for the next change”.
The need to go further meets “a society that is tense” in the face of many crises and impositions. Therefore, governing will continue to be difficult. “Our opponents want to push us to the sidelines,” warned Habeck. However, the Greens should not “let themselves be expelled from the center”. He advised his own party against looking for simple solutions. “Have no longing for a minority position, have no longing for opposition,” he called out to the delegates of the so-called state council.
In Bad Vilbel in Hesse, Green Party leader Ricarda Lang called for insistence on core green issues. The climate crisis is not a dream of the future, but already a danger, she said on Saturday. “At the end of the day, climate protection is nothing more than protecting humanity,” said Lang. But it is also about economic reason. Climate protection is “nothing more than a huge job engine”.
Long complained: “We are experiencing a culture war about social and economic issues.” It’s about social security and affordable rents and investments. She promised, “We’re not going back to niche, we’re going to broaden right now.”
“Government also means making difficult decisions”
The green top candidate for the Hessian state elections in autumn, Tarek Al-Wazir, explained that burying your head in the sand would not solve any problem. The Greens have to create change, but make sure that people are also involved in this change. “Government also means making difficult decisions.” The political system can only withstand this if the search for solutions and not populism is given priority.
The leader of the Greens parliamentary group, Katharina Dröge, also admitted: “This party was founded to change the country”, even if it is not the easiest time to govern. The Greens, as part of the traffic light government, could be proud of what has been achieved. “Without us, the topic of climate protection would not have been discussed at all last year,” referring, among other things, to the expansion figures for wind and solar energy.
Regarding the heating law, which the Bundestag is now dealing with, Dröge said it was normal for people to ask how they could pay for the switch. “We must not talk that away, we must not downplay it.”
The acceptance of green projects depends on taking people’s concerns seriously, which is why the Greens in the Bundestag fought for social support for the switch from gas and oil heating to more climate-friendly alternatives.
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