Dear friends,
I spoke with Johannes Bebermeier of the German news platform T-Online why attempts to shift the German Greens towards the right did not resonate with voters in the recent elections to the Bundestag. I am summarising the most critical points of the interview in this mail, but you can also access and share the entire interview here (deepl.com also provides an excellent translation if you don’t read German).
Constantly attempting to shift Green politics to the right does not work.
We can communicate and stand for Green politics without becoming squeaky green. When we push for effective climate action, there is no reason to cite economic reasons primarily. After all, we are protecting nature for its own sake – even though it remains clear that a faster transition will create jobs and safeguard welfare in the long run. At the same time, inequality has also become too great for functioning democracies and needs to be corrected through tax policy. Thus, we can also call economic inequality by its name instead of just talking about ‘social cohesion’. In future, we should also be more explicit when we compromise. Let’s call compromises compromises instead of just “selling” the successes contained within them.
Solidarity with refugees is just as much a part of Green Party DNA as the nuclear phase-out, nature conservation or climate protection. Especially when the attacks on our responsibility to protect are becoming increasingly shrill. From an economic perspective, it is also evident that Germany needs a net immigration of 400,000 people per year. Current anti-immigration debates, however, are destroying the social climate that we need to receive this immigration. That is fatal. The problems on the ground with the supply of affordable housing, in schools and daycare centres and with healthcare are real. But the answer to this is not to put pressure on refugees or immigration but to equip local authorities and the education and social systems to overcome the shortages.
In short, as Greens, we should take heart to become Greener and speak Greener again.
We need to become alive and active and sharper!
And there is absolutely no need to hide: With the Green Deal, we have achieved Europe’s most significant ecological progress that Europe has ever seen – also thanks to the “traffic light coalition” in Germany: From moving towards circular economy to biodiversity and climate protection, we have achieved an incredible amount.
But, the EU Commission under Ursula von der Leyen is trying to weaken the Green Deal. Unfortunately, these attacks are being drowned out by the noise around Trump’s betrayal of our once-shared values. That makes it all the more important to realise that the Green Deal also provides independence from fossil-fuelled autocrats worldwide. Europe spends over 250 billion a year on importing coal, oil and gas. Instead, we should invest in solar, wind and storage and thus in our energy independence.
Without the revenue from fossil fuels, Putin would not have been able to wage his illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. Therefore, the rapid move away from fossil fuels, including a gas independence plan, is also a geopolitical imperative.
That is why we must defend the Green Deal now! We need to transition faster and more courageously, not more slowly.
This combines economic interests with the necessities of climate action. This is economic and SME policy at its best. For example, the end of the combustion engine naturally means a significant change for the German and European automotive industry. At the same time, we will lose touch internationally if we do not consistently develop electric alternatives in Europe.
The Commission is currently jeopardising this. The Supply Chain Act is also being completely gutted. Products from exploitation and the destruction of nature will continue to enter the European internal market – providing an unfair disadvantage to those doing business with decency.
Reducing bureaucracy is not the same as deregulation and is certainly not a licence to exploit! Instead, it means realising our socio-ecological protection goals and fair competition with as little administrative effort as possible. We need to make a clear distinction here.
I remain convinced that we must defend and further develop the Green Deal. We must raise these issues loudly instead of playing quietly. The German Greens gained 40,000 new members during this recent campaign, enlarging our membership by a third! Our response to the current attacks on the Green Deal will be the first test of whether we Greens, with all our new members, can campaign in the long term, independent of election campaigns. At the same time, we now also have a chance to convince those who previously voted for Angela Merkel or the FDP of our vision of a fair and sustainable future. On the other hand, we have essential potential voters among people who are close to critical civil society.
All of our potential voters expect concepts that are both visionary and feasible. We recently set out these in the German Green government programme. We will now demand just this.
Because the numerous crises now require decisive action.
With Green European greetings
Sven Giegold