Against Party Leadership: Green Politicians Support Palmer

GIf the leadership of the Greens asked Boris Palmer, the mayor of Tübingen, to leave the party, there was resistance within his own ranks. In a public appeal, some thirty politicians and green mandate holders call on Federal Presidents Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck and the Baden-Wuerttemberg State Board to “seek dialogue and renounce the style of the measure” with Palmer. “Boris Palmer is one of the Greens veterans of Baden-Württemberg, he is a staunch ecologist and sometimes a rebellious free spirit,” says the appeal. “It was not impossible to teach” and he gave “serious reasons” for his position. Since its founding, the Greens have been “a place of passionate debate, open debate”, and “freedom of expression and respect for minority views” have always played an important role for the Greens since its founding, the appeal , faz.net says it is present

Signatories include former Vice President of the German Bundestag, Antje Vollmer, former Parliamentary Secretary of State for Uschi Eid, Baden-Württemberg member of the Landtag Martin Hahn, and Mayor of the Upper Swabian Community of Maselheim, Elmar Braun. He was elected the first green mayor of Germany in 1991 and has held the position to this day after several re-elections.

In a television interview with the Sat1 radio station, Palmer spoke in favor of a change of strategy in the crown’s policy and advocated loosening the closure for economic reasons and, at the same time, improving the security of older people and sick against infection with Sars Cov 2 virus protect Then he literally said: “Let me tell you brutally: in Germany, we can save people who would be dead in six months anyway, due to their age and previous illnesses.”

Later, the federal executive declared that this statement was not compatible with the basic values ​​of the green party, the state executive had asked Palmer on Friday night after a telephone meeting of the board to leave the party. Additionally, State Presidents Sandra Detzer and Oliver Hildenbrand had announced that they would no longer support Palmer in any other candidacy for political office. The state board’s decision also contained a threat to initiate party exclusion procedures. Palmer later stated that he wanted to remain a member of the Greens. He also wanted to make an effort to explain his criticism of the current pandemic policy to federal and state boards.

Kretschmann: an open-minded and pluralistic party has to endure this

Baden-Württemberg Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) criticized Palmer’s statement very severely, but also disagreed with the form of the dispute in his party. “Palmer’s prayer contradicts the spirit and standard of the Basic Law. Our basic law is the daughter of Christianity and the thought of Immanuel Kant, ”Kretschmann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The value of a life is not measured by the duration of physical existence. “This is stated in the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the Aviation Security Law of 2005.” At the request of the state executive to Palmer to leave the party, Kretschmann said: “I am not a full member of the state executive committee and did not participate in the vote and debate on the executive committee, but believe that a pluralistic and open-minded party how the Greens have to put up with that discussion. “