The mood among the Berlin Greens is testy. Bundestag member Renate Künast described the state party conference as a debacle. The state executive board canceled it on Saturday after the only candidate, Tanja Prinz, failed in the election for state chairmanship in three rounds.
A plan B would have been needed, she told the RBB “Abendschau” with a view to canceling the party conference. It was a “debacle almost with an announcement”. Now we have to “find this plan B,” said Künast, “i.e. a candidate who is widely supported by the Realo wing.” The party conference is scheduled to continue on Wednesday.
Künast criticized an open letter from nine district associations that had opposed Prinz’s election and criticized her and her supporters. “Something like that belongs in the party’s internal debates,” said Künast. The manners between Realos and the Left are a problem that cannot be solved in the short term but will take months. “We have the task now,” she said.
On Saturday there was an interruption after the second round of voting during which Prinz discussed with her supporters whether she should run again. In the third round of voting, Prinz received 41 yes votes, 104 no votes and two abstentions. She decided against a possible fourth round of voting and said a curt farewell immediately after the vote: “Thank you very much, Merry Christmas!”
According to the statutes, the regional association is led by a dual leadership, which must include at least one woman. So far these are Philmon Ghirmai from the party left and Susanne Mertens from the Realo wing. They remain in office until a new board is elected.
“A situation has arisen that no one could wish for,” said Ghirmai. The election of the state executive committee should not be rushed, he said, justifying the request to interrupt the party conference. “We need to talk.” Timur Ohloff, a delegate from the Mitte district association, criticized the approach. It would have been better to present an opposing candidate, he said.
In her speech, Prinz demanded that the black-red chapter be ended as quickly as possible. For Economics Senator Franziska Giffey (SPD), economics is now just a photo shoot. Black and Red can’t do it and are looting the coffers. The Greens need to gain trust – “in the city center and outside,” said Reala from Lichtenrade. “It would be an honor to become your state chair,” she concluded. But it didn’t get through to the delegates.
Fear of a dispute over direction
The question of who should lead the Berlin Greens in the future has already caused uncertainty in recent weeks. Behind this is also the fear of a dispute over direction and intra-party strife between the different parts of the party, for which the Berlin Greens were notorious years ago.
Essentially, the question between the Left and the Realos is what the Greens want to focus on in the next state parliament election in 2026: on the old alliance partners SPD and Left? Or black-green or black-green-yellow? Should the regional association prepare to become Kai Wegner’s next partner? The current governing mayor is said to have liked to form a coalition with the Greens in February – but did not receive a signal of serious interest from them in time.
Even within the Realos, views on the question of future alliance options differ. This was evident, for example, in the conflict between Prinz and the previous chairwoman Susanne Mertens. From the perspective of critics from the Realo camp, Mertens showed too little profile compared to the party left and relied too much on consensus. At the end of October, Prinz announced that he would run for the state presidency alongside Ghirmai. She narrowly defeated Mertens in a vote by the Realo wing. And shortly afterwards she announced that she no longer wanted to run for office.
The fact that Prinz failed so clearly on Saturday shows that there is no majority in the party for a clear change of course. The party now has to clarify where the Greens should go. The continuation of the state delegate conference is the first opportunity for this.