Tough course against migrants: The traffic light policy is putting the Greens to the test. At the party conference in Karlsruhe, old trench warfare could break out.
Karlsruhe/Berlin – Deportation camps at the EU’s external border, more expulsions to third countries, order instead of humanity: the federal government has tightened the tone in the asylum debate in recent weeks. But for some of the Greens, the limit of reasonableness in the traffic light alliance has been reached. Shortly before the start of the party conference, the left wing of the party insisted on a course correction in numerous motions and incendiary letters. Observers are already seeing old trench warfare with the Realos breaking out again.
Party conference in Karlsruhe: Greens are threatened with a test in asylum policy
From Thursday (November 23rd), the Greens will gather in Karlsruhe for four days for the 49th Federal Party Conference. Officially, the federal executive board around party leaders Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour is to be re-elected and the program and candidates for the 2024 European elections are to be drawn up. But the main agenda items could already take a back seat on day one. Because to start with there is one Debate on the direction of asylum policy scheduled. Apparently the members should first be able to let off some steam. The World is already assuming a “showdown” between the left and the realists.
Dispute over migration: Baerbock and Kretschmann irritate the left wing of the party
The Greens have been deeply divided in the migration debate for weeks. To the dismay of many members, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock approved a new EU rule in the summer, according to which asylum seekers from countries with a low recognition rate can be held longer in prison-like conditions at the EU’s external borders in order to then send them back to their home countries. The mere fact that the minister had resisted it for a long time prevented an open break on the asylum issue. However, Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann has now gone one step further by supporting a federal-state pact that also provides for faster deportations and longer prison times.
Greens face dispute over direction: State sea rescue instead of deportations to third countries?
For the left wing of the party, a limit has now been crossed. They do not want deportations to third countries. Instead, they want a concrete individual decision on each asylum application and also a state-financed and organized sea rescue, as can be seen from the various applications on the asylum issue. The extent of the dissatisfaction with the government’s chosen course was already evident last week, when hundreds of members signed an open letter calling their own traffic light coalition an “advertising agency for false compromises”.
Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour have to moderate the asylum dispute
The asylum anger could now be released at the party conference in Karlsruhe. It will not be an easy task for the two party leaders Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour to reconcile the different opinions. The different interests are too great. Asylum policy is a core issue for the Greens; they had negotiated an asylum-oriented line into the coalition agreement.
After being thrown out in Hesse: Realos are forced to compromise
But reality has largely caught up with the theory. In view of numerous conflicts, the pressure for asylum at the borders has increased. Most recently, municipalities and states warned of excessive demands on admissions, which is why the federal government felt compelled to act. Realists in the coalition such as Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Baerbock supported the line. Parts of the party leadership also see little alternative to the course, after migration has repeatedly played a central role in recent election campaigns and the Greens in Hesse and Bavaria have had to accept significant setbacks.
In Hesse, for example, the party was thrown out of the coalition after ten years in government. Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) now prefers to rely on an alliance with the SPD – among other things because with them a tougher course on the migration issue is possible, as he openly explained.
Against this background, the party conference has something groundbreaking. Who will prevail in the end? “The topic is extremely polarizing,” political scientist Julia Reuschenbach recently told tagesschau.de and added: “In the Greens, old rifts between the left and the realists are showing up again.” (jeki)
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