The Green Youth needs a new dual leadership in October. A meteorologist and a medical student want to lead the junior organization and, with it, implement “climate protection in turbo mode”.
The politicians Svenja Appuhn and Katharina Stolla want to lead the Green Youth in the future. Both announced on Saturday that they would apply to be federal speakers at the federal congress in mid-October. If elected, there would be two women at the top of the party’s junior ranks for the first time in twelve years.
Opposite tagesschau.de Appuhn announced that he wanted to keep his distance from the traffic light coalition – even though the Greens are part of it. The traffic lights do not offer the younger generation any prospects, says Appuhn. Instead, “climate protection in turbo mode” is needed. In their opinion, the “super-rich” in particular should pay for the accompanying relief.
To ensure that this happens, Katharina Stolla wants to organize protests together with the climate movement, trade unions and social associations. According to Stolla, we speak “the language that the federal government understands: social pressure from the street.”
Both justify their joint candidacy by saying that it is not enough for women to “stand aside and comfort” in the face of current politics.
Traffic lights in the focus of criticism
Appuhn and Stolla already sit on the federal board of the Green Youth. The 25-year-old medical student Appuhn unsuccessfully ran for the Bundestag in 2021. The meteorologist Stolla is also 25 years old. Both represent the regional associations of Lower Saxony and Hamburg.
The current federal spokespersons, Timon Dzienus and Sarah-Lee Heinrich, are leaving office in October. Dzienus and Heinrich had also repeatedly criticized the traffic light coalition. Just this week they accused the federal government of driving minimum wage earners and students into poverty and of strengthening the AfD through a lack of financial compensation for climate protection.
For the Green Youth, the office of federal spokesperson cannot be held for longer than two years. According to the statutes, at least one of the speakers must be a woman or a trans person. Unlike most party youth organizations, active membership ends at 28 instead of 35.