2024-09-30 21:54:21
Greens
Baerbock for Habeck leadership – top team is taking shape
Updated on September 29, 2024 – 5:52 p.mReading time: 3 min.
The Habeck team will be complete one year before the election. The last candidate for chancellor seems to be at peace with this. But the violent shocks among the Greens do not stop.
Green Party leader Robert Habeck can go into the federal election campaign with the support of the former Green Party candidate for chancellor and a new team. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wants to support Habeck “in this challenging federal election campaign,” she announced on ARD. Habeck’s State Secretary Sven Giegold is considering running for the Green Party’s federal leadership.
Baerbock, the candidate for chancellor in the 2021 federal election, praises Habeck in the “Report from Berlin” as “the right man for us”. At the same time, the upheavals in the party continue with the resignation of another Green Youth state executive. Left-wing Greens in particular are alarmed. Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir from the Realo wing is drawing harsh criticism from the left wing with a critical contribution to migration.
Giegold, a high-ranking official in Robert Habeck’s economics ministry, is considering running for political director of the Greens. The 54-year-old made this clear at a meeting of the left wing of the party in Berlin, as the German Press Agency learned from participants.
Giegold offered that he could take a leading role in the new departure from the deep crisis that the Greens longed for. The party leftist cited his humanistic asylum course, which is influenced by the Christian view of humanity, and his organizational experience. Giegold is an economist, a founding member of Attac Germany and also made a name for himself as a resident of an old farm in a project for alternative living and working.
As federal managing director, called general secretary in other parties, Giegold would automatically be a member of the party executive board. The new election of the entire board is scheduled to take place in mid-November at a federal party conference in Wiesbaden.
If successful, Giegold would be the successor to Emily Büning, who has been accused of being colorless as Federal Political Director. Franziska Brantner and Felix Banaszak announced their candidacy for the party leadership. The campaign manager, probably without a seat on the board, will be Green Party deputy Andreas Audretsch.
Giegold is considered an experienced expert in the political shaping of climate protection, the central Green issue. He served in the European Parliament for twelve years and is considered to have excellent connections. At party conferences, the collector of plush toys can carry one around with them for days – ideal for small talk and networking.
Is the designated candidate for chancellor Habeck, with the likely persona Giegold, further aligning the Greens with himself? That would not be in the interests of many party leftists. Like Giegold, Brantner is state secretary in Habeck’s ministry; he is a civil servant and she is a parliamentary one. But unlike Brantner, Giegold is not considered Habeck’s personal confidante: Party circles say he only works well with him.
Baerbock said in the ARD “Report from Berlin”: “Robert Habeck is the one who is leading us into the federal election campaign.” But the Greens are particularly strong as a team. The following applies: “There is no need for lone fighters.” She herself wants to fight for Team Habeck as a top politician.
Nevertheless, there is excitement among young and left-wing Greens. The board of the Green Youth Schleswig-Holstein almost unanimously announced that they were leaving the party. Seven of the eight members of the current state executive board and three of the previous leadership had decided to do so. It is the fifth state executive board to follow the departure of the youth organization’s federal executive board from the party. State spokespersons Katharina Kewitz and Lars Brommann explained that instead of taking on corporations, the Greens would support tightening asylum laws.
Agriculture Minister and “Oberrealo” Cem Özdemir caused a stir when he critically addressed migration policy in an article for the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. His daughter is often “unpleasantly stared at or sexualized by men with a migrant background.” Clear boundaries must be drawn: “Anyone who can and wants to contribute a valuable part to our country is welcome. We will help anyone who is demonstrably seeking protection. We have no room for anyone else.” Özdemir is said to want to succeed Winfried Kretschmann as Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg.
The left-wing MEP Erik Marquardt then announced on X that the Greens would never follow right-wing narratives. “We’ll make sure of that.” Politicians from other parties accused the son of Turkish immigrants of abusing his own role and trivializing fascists. Özdemir also received a lot of applause from many X users. Baerbock defended Özdemir’s text as a contribution to offensively addressing supposed contradictions.