KEconomics and Climate Minister Robert Habeck recently explained in a television interview what he had learned from the debacle surrounding his heating law: that politics should not be based on the Excel spreadsheets of climate scientists, that laws could also come at the wrong time, that he for his original plan could not create a social majority. Habeck’s body language said more than that: tense, hands clasped, he leaned forward so as not to adopt a reclined defensive pose. Habeck wanted to do penance, and it should appear appropriately humble.
Many will have perceived this as another sympathetic moment; there are not many politicians who speak so frankly about their own misjudgments. Politically, however, a new message was conveyed: someone spoke who had realized that he had overstepped the mark, that the “green project” had reached a limit and that things had to continue differently from now on. The audience witnessed a political tipping point that both reflected and could alter the debate in the country.
“Lost the connection to the people”
The polls have been showing for weeks: Habeck and his party have left “Peak Green” behind. The party leadership had to realize that their climate policy cannot expect acceptance, let alone majorities, simply because scientists or activists consider it correct, because it is executed with good intentions, or because it is praised by commentators. For the first time in a very long time, the party has to doubt whether it still embodies the zeitgeist. The former vice-president of the Bremen Parliament, Sülmez Colak, summed it up in the simple formula that the Greens had “lost contact with the people”. Colak had previously returned her party membership after twenty years of membership.
The Greens are having a similar experience of alienation when it comes to migration policy. Their opposition to almost any form of immigration control has failed the reality test. In the election program, the party promised to extend the right to asylum again and rejected the declaration of safe third countries. Problems associated with the failure of rule-of-law deportations have been ignored. It’s not just many Germans who think that’s unrealistic, but also the majority in neighboring EU countries. Because their migration policy was in conflict with – desired – European action, Habeck and his colleague Baerbock finally turned around and supported the latest package of measures by the EU interior ministers against great grumbling in the party.
People who have been in the Berlin business for a long time point out that this is not the first time the party has taken heartfelt concerns, that this is part of the green movement principle, so to speak. In the chancellery, which is occupied by the SPD, it says dryly: “Welcome to the club.” What is meant is that compromises are part of a coalition, even for the Greens. But the sardonic grin on the faces of some government partners betrays that more has happened these days. The special role that the Greens played for a large part of the public is dissolving.
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