If the Greens in Germany move towards the centre, they can become a real force again
One of the Greens' key problems is personnel. At their peak in 2021 they had two lead figures in Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, who were widely regarded as pragmatists – a prerequisite for effective government in Germany's compromise-oriented system. After the 2021 election, Baerbock became foreign minister in Olaf Scholz's SPD-Green-liberal 'traffic light coalition', and Habeck vice chancellor and minister for economic affairs and climate action.
After the collapse of that government, the Greens lost a million votes and fell into fourth place in this year's elections. Key personnel are departing en masse. Habeck wants to move to Denmark; Baerbock is now president of the United Nations General Assembly. Meanwhile the entire leadership board of the party's Green Youth wing quit the party altogether. In theory, this should have opened an opportunity for a reset.
The party elected a new leadership duo – Franziska Brantner, 45, and Felix Banaszak, 35 – and new Green Youth leaders: the climate activist Jakob Blasel and the self-proclaimed 'leftwing radical' Jette Nietzard. But far from being a reboot, this setup has highlighted deep internal divisions. Since the Greens emerged out of the anti-nuclear, environmental and peace movements of the 1980s and became a serious political player, there has been a rift between the party's pragmatists, known as Realos, and its fundamentalists, or Fundis.
These old ideological faultlines have reappeared with a vengeance, and follow generational lines. You could practically hear the collective sigh of relief at the top of the party when Nietzard announced that she wouldn't run for the Green Youth leadership again this autumn. She has repeatedly alienated the centrist voter groups the Greens are trying to win back, appearing in clothing imprinted with the anti-police acronym 'ACAB' and the anti-capitalist slogan 'Eat the rich'. Last month she pondered whether resistance to any future government coalition containing the far-right AfD should be 'intellectual or perhaps with weapons'.
Those may be positions shared by other German leftwingers, but that space on the political spectrum is already occupied by Die Linke, which has recently made gains by taking a more stridently combative position against the right. People as far to the left as Nietzard are more likely to vote Die Linke than Green. The two parties are now neck and neck in the polls, with 10-12% each.
The new Green leadership is determined to resolve the party's split personality and find its way back to the centre, and to power. Banaszak wants to put clear blue water between his party and the radical left. He told the German press that 'it wasn't a secret' that he and Nietzard 'mostly held different opinions'. With her gone, the new leadership is hoping to restore a Realo-dominated party. To this end they are using the parliamentary summer recess to travel to areas of Germany where the 'atmosphere is heated', as their campaign put it, especially working-class strongholds in the industrial Ruhr region and the former East Germany.
The pair were ridiculed for this initially, especially when Banaszak ensured he was photographed sitting on the floor of a train, even though German politicians have unlimited use of first class. But if the trip helps bring the Green leadership closer to Germany's political realities, it could be more than just a publicity stunt. On a recent visit to Thuringia, an AfD stronghold in the former East Germany, Banaszak was told by the teenage son of a Green mayor that 'people here think of the Greens as radical climate activists', but if they see that Green politicians can bring improvements – if 'life is breathed back into a village, roads are repaired' – then their reputation might be restored.
In the West German industrial town of Duisburg, Brantner pondered whether the Greens lost young male voters by failing to offer a positive place for them. Whenever the concept of masculinity was mentioned, she suggested, it was preceded by the word 'toxic'. Such self-criticism is new and important. The AfD strategy for coming to power is to provoke a Trump-style polarisation of politics. The Greens will play into their hands if they move further to the left, abandoning the centre ground the AfD seeks to destroy.
There is plenty of room for a mainstream Green party in Germany's political landscape. They could become the country's foremost centre-left force if they play their cards right, strengthening moderate politics overall. Part of their potential is that they can work with conservatives. The southern state of Baden-Württemberg has been led by the Green Winfried Kretschmann since 2011, and he is popular even with conservative voters, running a coalition with the centre-right CDU – a model that could also work on the federal level.
Like it or not, there is a conservative majority in German society looking for an expression of its views on the political stage. The CDU has vowed never to work with the AfD, but this binds them to an increasingly unpopular Social Democratic Party (SPD). Adding a CDU-Green coalition to the range of options would strengthen the centre, and in doing so strengthen a democracy that is under attack. Not to mention that it would also restore environmental concerns to a political culture that appears to have sidelined them.
Whether the new Green leaders can take a deeply divided party with them on their path to pragmatic progressivism remains to be seen. But try they must – not just for the sake of their own party, but for the sake of German democracy.
Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian and journalist. Her latest book is Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
24 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian captivity buried in Kyiv
Viktoriia Roshchyna, the Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian captivity last year, has been buried in Kyiv, in a ceremony attended by relatives and colleagues who paid tribute to her singular professional courage and the importance of her work. Roshchyna was reporting on Russia's systematic policy of extrajudicial detention and torture in occupied parts of Ukraine, before falling victim to it herself. She died at the age of 27 last year in murky circumstances, after more than a year in Russian captivity. Her body was returned earlier this year with some of the internal organs missing. On Friday, an Orthodox church service at the golden-domed St Michael's Cathedral in central Kyiv was followed by speeches on Maidan, the city's central square. Mourners included Roshchyna's editors and journalistic colleagues, diplomats, MPs and members of the public who came to pay their respects. She was later buried at the Baikove cemetery. Colleagues described Roshchyna as a passionate and driven journalist, who pursued her work with such an intensity that she was often difficult to manage. She refused to take no for an answer and insisted she had to see the situation in occupied territory for herself. Editors, reluctant to accept the risks of her self-commissioned assignments, also knew that her work was shining a unique light on one of the darkest and hardest-to-access aspects of Russia's war. 'She is the bravest person, the bravest journalist, I have ever met in my life. That's not an exaggeration, it's a fact,' said Sevgil Musayeva, the editor in chief of Ukrainska Pravda, one of the outlets for which Roshchyna worked for, in a speech on Maidan. 'Once she started something, she never quit,' said the Ukrainian journalist Angelina Kariakina, who worked with Roshchyna at the Hromadske news website. 'If she started a case, a story, we editors never had to remind her that something was happening further in the story. She simply never abandoned her characters or her stories.' Roshchyna was taken captive briefly in Russian-controlled territory in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion in spring 2022, but was subsequently released. However, she continued to travel to occupied areas to bring back stories of life under Russian control, and was taken captive again in August 2023. 'Viktoriia was a person who didn't know the word 'no'. Everyone explained that she shouldn't go to occupied territory. No editors were ready to take responsibility for this, but she still understood that this was her mission, and did it,' said Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, an MP and the head of the Ukrainian parliament's committee on freedom of speech. 'She was genuine, and genuine people often burn with intensity, and with that fire they ignite everyone around them, but very often this passion costs them the most precious thing – their health and their life,' he added. Roshchyna's death in captivity was investigated by the Viktoriia Project, a consortium including the Guardian, Ukrainska Pravda and other reporting partners, earlier this year. For months after her disappearance, there was no news of Roshchyna, who was held, like many Ukrainian detainees, without contact with the outside world. It was only in May 2024 that Russian authorities admitted, in a letter to her father, that she was being held in captivity. Roshchyna was last seen alive on 8 September 2024, and there were rumours she was due to be included in a prisoner exchange. Ukrainian investigators are still working to establish exactly where and how she died. Sources close to the official Ukrainian investigation disclosed to the Viktoriia Project that examination of Roshchyna's body after its repatriation earlier this year showed the hyoid bone in her neck was broken, damage which can occur during strangulation. The body was also returned with the brain, eyes and larynx removed. Roshchyna was posthumously awarded the Order of Freedom by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, earlier this month. She received it 'for her unwavering belief that freedom will overcome everything,' Zelenskyy wrote on X. Roshchyna spent nearly nine months imprisoned at pre-trial detention centre number 2 in the city of Taganrog, which was repurposed as a holding centre for Ukrainian detainees and has been identified as one of the worst places for torture and mistreatment. Earlier this week, Ukraine's national police service and its chief war crimes prosecutor announced that Aleksandr Shtoda, the head of the facility, had been formally placed under investigation. At the funeral, Roshchyna's editors vowed to continue investigating the circumstances of her death and the specific people who were responsible. 'Our task is not to leave the theme of the occupied territories, however hard it is,' said Kariakina. 'The best way to remember her is not just with words and memories of the work she already did, but to continue this work.'
The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
Why I am joining the Palestine Action protesters
Today, I will be in Parliament Square to demand that the UK government uphold our right to freedom of speech, and to denounce the genocide that the Israeli government is perpetrating in Gaza against the Palestinian people. As a human rights defender, a mother, grandmother and great-great grandmother who has denounced genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing throughout the world, I cannot remain silent, witnessing the genocide and the abhorrent starvation of the Palestinian people. I will be holding a sign that will read: 'The UK Government is in flagrant violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states 'Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.'' Volker Türk, UN human rights chief, stated that '[the proscription of Palestine Action ] appears to constitute an impermissible restriction on those rights that are at odds with the UK's obligations under international human rights law.' Since 5 July, when the order proscribing the Palestine Action protest group under terrorism legislation came into force, hundreds of people have been arrested for holding up peaceful signs motivated by their consternation and horror at the genocide in Gaza. I was shocked to see 83-year-old Reverend Sue Parfitt on television being arrested on the day that Palestine Action was proscribed. Reverend Parfitt was attending a demonstration in Parliament Square, sitting in a camp chair around fellow protesters holding a placard stating her support of the outlawed protest group. While being carried away by police, Reverend Parfitt described the ban as "total nonsense", and went on to add that it symbolised a "loss of civil liberties in this country". Some have had their homes raided by the police. No one arrested seemed to pose any threat to the public. Türk has also said that the UK's counter-terrorism legislation 'misuses the gravity and impact of terrorism to expand it beyond those clear boundaries, to encompass further conduct that is already criminal under the law'. He added: 'The decision also conflates protected expression and other conduct with acts of terrorism and so could readily lead to further chilling effects on the lawful exercise of these rights by many people.' Yesterday, Amnesty International wrote to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, stating that arresting protesters would violate international law: 'The arrest of otherwise peaceful protesters solely for expressing the statement 'I Oppose Genocide – I Support Palestine Action' is a violation of the UK's international obligations to protect the rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. 'Further arrests [carried out on the 9 August demonstration] would violate international human rights law. As such, we urge you to instruct your officers to comply with the UK's international obligations and act with restraint in their response to any such protests that occur, by not arresting protesters who are merely carrying placards that state they oppose genocide and support Palestine Action.' The European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights recently wrote a paper, supported by numerous legal advocacy groups, that states: 'Evidence suggests active and sustained cooperation between the UK and Israeli armies. Concerns surround reports that the UK military has carried out over 500 surveillance flights around Gaza since December 2023, sharing intelligence with Israel – including during the ceasefire.' Only yesterday, further evidence emerged of the RAF's ongoing support for Israel: 'Britain continues to run near daily surveillance flights over Gaza with the help of a US contractor at a time of growing questions about how the intelligence obtained is used and shared with the Israeli military. 'Specialist flight trackers estimate that RAF Shadow aircraft have run more than 600 flights over the Palestinian territory from the Akrotiri airbase in Cyprus in an attempt to locate the remaining hostages held by Hamas since December 2023.' Palestine Action is being punished for exposing the crimes of the British government and taking action to uphold international law. We cannot turn a blind eye to the horrific crimes against humanity that are being perpetrated by Israel in Gaza. I will be joining the demonstration in Parliament Square to oppose genocide and defend human rights and freedom of speech. Bianca Jagger is the founder and president of the BIanca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, a Council of Europe goodwill ambassador, and a member of the executive director's leadership council of Amnesty International USA
Telegraph
38 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Putin's warlord ally flying migrants into Europe
Vladimir Putin appears to have teamed up with a Libyan warlord to trigger a fresh migrant crisis in the European Union. The European Commission has tracked an increased number of flights between the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi and Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Officials said the pattern suggested possible co-ordination with Gen Khalifa Haftar, the military strongman who controls much of eastern Libya, to facilitate a wave of illegal migration into the bloc. It could mark a repeat of the summer of 2021, when tens of thousands of would-be asylum seekers were helped across the borders of Belarus in what officials warned was a Russian-orchestrated attempt to destabilise the EU. 'We are monitoring recent Minsk-Benghazi flights operated by Belavia Airlines,' a commission official told The Telegraph. 'The frequency and nature of these flights, particularly within a short timeframe, raise questions about potential co-ordination or facilitation of irregular migration flows.' Open-source data reviewed by The Telegraph shows a spike in flights between the Libyan city and the Belarusian capital on the flag-carrying airline in recent months. In May, there were just two flights between the cities, jumping to five in June and four in July. In the past, Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator, had been accused of allowing migrants to land in Minsk on similar flights before helping transport them to makeshift camps on the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. From the camps, the migrants were said to have been advised by Belarusian officials on how to cross the frontier without being detected. Analysts have since said this was done in co-ordination with Putin to distract from his forces massed on the borders with Ukraine before his invasion in February 2022. After launching the bloodiest conflict since the Second World War, the Russian president has ordered a series of hybrid attacks on Nato and EU nations supporting Kyiv's defence. In the first seven months of this year, the EU has recorded around 5,000 illegal crossings at its eastern land borders. While this is down from last year, the few flights between Libya and Belarus could lead to a new influx of arrivals across the frontier. Some in Europe say Putin could use his growing influence in Libya to once again target the continent. The Russian president has invested efforts in building a presence in the North African country since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. As Russia evacuated its Syrian bases, there was evidence equipment was being moved from the port of Tartus to Libya. When Haftar held a parade of his Libyan Arab Armed Force last month, it showcased hundreds of Russian armoured vehicles and air defence systems. He is known to control a small army of people smugglers operating out of Libya, one of the main crossing points from Africa to Europe across the Mediterranean. 'The fact that Russia is increasing its influence in Libya is precisely our concern, and that's why we must also engage with Libya,' Magnus Brunner, the EU's migration commissioner, told Politico last month. 'There is certainly a danger that Russia will use migrants and the migration issue as a whole as a weapon against Europe. This weaponisation is taking place, and of course we also fear that Russia intends to do the same with Libya.' Mr Brunner was one of a group of high-ranking EU officials on an ill-fated visit to Benghazi last month, which was abruptly scrapped after the delegation landed at the city's Benina airport before being told they were persona non grata. Belarus has been identified by Frontex, the agency that polices the EU's external border, as one of the main challenges the bloc faces in its fight against illegal migration this year. The evidence suggests that Lukashenko, Putin and Haftar have teamed up to exploit the frontier once again. 'Migrants are used as an instrument by the regime to put pressure on the European Union's borders, and our neighbours are really suffering from this,' Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Belarus's exiled opposition leader, told The Telegraph. 'This is all the actions of Lukashenko and just business for his regime and a tool to put pressure on the EU for the principled and strong position in supporting democracy.'
