The Greens have a power vacuum at the top

RObert Habeck is right: coalition partners who only think and act in terms of success and defeat are ill-advised. Good governance means pulling together and resolving disagreements constructively. The traffic light does not want to succeed, despite all warnings. Each of the three partners has its share in it.

“Ready because you are” was the Greens’ 2021 campaign slogan. It was never really conclusive. That society was ready for the big green transition was more wishful thinking than reality on the part of the campaigners.

But at least the Greens gave the impression that they were ready to govern. In the last few years with Merkel, they had given themselves the name “quasi-governing party waiting” and the drawers were full of draft laws. Greens were no longer strangers to power, they were dying to finally have it. “Power comes from doing,” said Habeck.

Ready to tear yourself apart

In their first year in government, the Greens did a lot and got involved. The rearmament of the Bundeswehr, the starting of coal-fired power plants, the (even if only half-heartedly) extension of the nuclear power plant runtimes were painful for large parts of the party, but they stood by them nonetheless.

In the second year, in which the government wanted to tackle the so-called progress projects, the forces of the Greens are tied differently. The party is dealing with itself. Ever since Baerbock and Habeck stopped beaming, there has been a power vacuum at the top. The Greens lack orientation and thus discipline. Now, more than anything else, they are ready to tear themselves apart.

We also have Annalena Baerbock to thank for the fact that there is now a European asylum compromise. She gets credit for jumping over her shadow. But she’s on fire with her own people.

That is new. Unlike Habeck, she was always close to the green soul. The leaders of the party and parliamentary group are unable to find a common position. They speak with divided tongues, realos defend German approval, leftists criticize them.

Baerbock is publicly punished – that’s new

It has proved a miscalculation that this would pacify the party. Despite all the appeals for mutual respect, the Greens felt encouraged to publicly punish Baerbock. It was “counted” was read on Twitter. The story goes that the foreign minister betrayed green goals. This is evil and self righteous. Realos downplay the conflict, the topic is of particular interest to the official level.

Leftists are outraged by this portrayal, reporting anger and tears at the base. And so the state council threatens to become a ostracism this Saturday, which should actually give the election campaigners in Hesse a tailwind. A governing party that behaves like this has a hard time being taken seriously.

It’s no secret that there are many young idealists in the faction. Some were active in refugee aid or sea rescue. Of course their hearts bleed. It was also clear that a European compromise would not have much to do with the Green manifesto. Germany was largely isolated in Europe with its demands, which many Greens ignored.

It would have been Baerbock’s job to prepare the party for the compromise: for example, to explain that it doesn’t mitigate a bit of the suffering at the external borders if the federal government follows pure doctrine and leaves it to others to get their hands dirty. It is also true that the German Bundestag simply has no say in EU issues.

Habeck also has problems. But they don’t have their origin in the fact that he wanted to expect something from his Greens again. Rather the opposite, he tried the heating law with 150 percent green. Habeck’s credo has always been that what is right can become wrong if you do it wrong.

But then he himself made politics with the crowbar and even alienated well-meaning people. A scene in the Bundestag is paradigmatic for the fact that he has lost sight of what is essential. The vice chancellor stormed after the former chairman of the Junge Union because he had once again unleashed a provocation.

There was no longer any talk of alliances; instead, the Greens were talking about the gas lobby, which almost reached the level of a conspiracy theory. The result is a heating law that has fallen well short of green expectations. Climate protectors are disappointed, but Habeck is not beaten up by his party.

One of the green paradoxes is that the party loves its leaders when others are hostile to them and becomes skeptical when others are also convinced.