Party Congress: Green Party Congress: Party leadership says “yes” to Realpolitik

party congress
Green Party Congress: Party leadership says “yes” to realpolitik

The Greens began their federal party conference in Bonn with a commitment to real political constraints and a sense of responsibility. With the words “Whether we want it or not – in the end we will have to have saved the world,” said Federal Managing Director Emily Büning in her welcome speech on Friday, setting the course for the next few days.

“We make politics for the reality that is there,” emphasized party leader Ricarda Lang. Referring to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, she said: “I am convinced that we must deliver more weapons, that we must become faster – the time for hesitation is over.” Anyone who sees the role of the Greens as a peace party in question should therefore know that the only warmonger in this conflict is Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The three-day federal party conference with around 800 delegates is the first on-site meeting of the Greens since the beginning of the corona pandemic. The meeting of the party, which is deeply rooted in the anti-nuclear movement, was overshadowed by the coalition dispute over the remaining service life of the last three nuclear reactors. Shortly before the start of the party congress, the party leadership emphasized that the result of the planned vote on this topic was binding for the upcoming talks with the SPD and FDP. “Why else should we decide it?” said party leader Omid Nouripour when asked by journalists.

Union has “actively sabotaged” Wende

“We can now see where 16 years of Union politics have led us,” said Federal Managing Director Büning. The CDU and CSU not only overslept the transition to more energy from renewable sources, but “actively sabotaged” it.

The delegates were expected in Bonn in the afternoon by a few dozen demonstrators who were protesting, among other things, against the planned lignite mining in Lützerath in North Rhine-Westphalia and against the green economic policy. The criticism of the decision to excavate the village was also visible in the hall. While the green NRW Economics Minister Mona Neubaur spoke at the front of the stage about the phase-out of coal-fired power generation in 2030, a young delegate from Baden-Württemberg in the back row raised a cardboard sign with the inscription “Lützi stays”.

The motto of the party congress is “When our world is in question: Answer”. Among the 1000 invited guests were the DGB Chairwoman Yasmin Fahimi and the President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Siegfried Russwurm.

Discussion about citizenship

First, delegates wanted to discuss what additional support beneficiaries should receive in light of high inflation. The federal board formulated in its application: “For us it is clear: the citizen’s income must continue to rise in the future, and a needs-based and inflation-proof recalculation of the standard rates must come.” The currently agreed increase is only a first step towards “poverty-proof basic security”.

The traffic light coalition wants to use the citizens’ income to replace the Hartz IV system in its current form on January 1, 2023. With their third relief package at the beginning of September, the SPD, Greens and FDP also decided that the standard rates for the around five million recipients of basic security should increase by 50 euros. For single adults, for example, it increases from 449 to 502 euros. In the future, demand is to be adjusted to inflation rates in a forward-looking manner.

Nuclear power and other issues related to securing the energy supply in winter should not be discussed at the party conference until late Friday evening. Debates on climate protection and foreign policy issues are planned for the weekend. These include, for example, controversial arms exports, such as to Saudi Arabia. And the question is whether the German government is protesting loudly enough against the suppression of the protests in Iran.

Green Party Congress

dpa