Green Party Congress: “We Fight for Power!”

secondescheidenheit is an ornament, one goes further without it: “We can do miracles!” Annalena Baerbock declared Friday night at the federal conference of the Greens party. “We can storm peaks!” Added Robert Habeck on Saturday afternoon.

Even the attempt to hold a program party conference in times of the pandemic was ambitious. The event should take place in Karlsruhe, a prelude to the 2021 super election. In March, a new state parliament will be elected in Baden-Württemberg, the Greens want to defend the state chancellery there.

Corona spoiled these plans, but a cancellation was still out of the question. The Greens are the first party in Germany to hold a digital party convention from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. The more than 800 delegates are connected via the Internet, the federal board and the presidium control the course from the Tempodrom in Berlin. The applause is marked with sunflower and heart icons.

The focus of the discussions is the adoption of a new basic program. During two and a half years, the 60-page draft was refined at numerous events and working groups, more than 1700 amendments were received; a gigantic task.

“The focus of our policy is on people in their dignity and freedom,” he says in the first sentence. The wording does not pretend to recall the first article of the Basic Law by chance. With their program, the Greens want to describe their vision of the green state, which they want to get closer to, especially in the super election year 2021. “Let’s make 2021 the beginning of a new era,” Baerbock said in his keynote address. 2021 will be the year “in which we will surpass ourselves,” Habeck emphasized.

The Greens are already involved in eleven state governments of the republic and are represented in 14 state parliaments. In the upcoming super election year, his party is fighting “seriously for the leadership of this country,” the party leader said. Neither he nor Baerbock were proclaimed candidates for chancellor in the party congress. The decision should only be made early next summer. But the claim to take a seat on the government benches again not only in the federal states but also in the federal government was clearly formulated: “We are fighting for power!” Habeck said.

The new program is titled “Change Creates Stability.” The unofficial slogan of the Greens at the moment is above all: Make no mistakes. The pandemic initially caught the party off guard and polls dropped. The Greens, who are now well ahead of the SPD, have recovered from this. It must stay that way; the party leadership wants to start the next electoral campaigns without a mortgage. An “accident”, such as the one that occurred in March 1998 when the Greens demanded a gasoline price of 5 marks per liter, should be carefully avoided.

“We don’t need genetically modified plants,” said one delegate.

Most of the controversial issues in the formulation of the new program were resolved beforehand in the green consensus machine, for example in the fight against climate change. The party leadership feared that the party congress would commit to a “1.5 degree” target. Annalena Baerbock addressed the conscience of the delegates right at the inauguration: “Shaking the Treaty of Paris, no matter how well-intentioned, prevents us from filling it with life,” she said. On Saturday night he worked on an engagement, successfully. There were no counter-emotions, the program now speaks of a “1.5 degree path”, a formulation that leaves room for government policy.

However, when it comes to genetic engineering in agriculture, the worlds collided on Saturday night. Attempts by the federal executive committee to bring this complex to a common denominator had not been successful. “We don’t need genetically modified plants and we don’t want them!” Declared a delegate who called for a fundamental rejection. Heidelberg’s Green Dorothea Kaufmann, on the other hand, came out in favor of relying on science not just when it comes to climate change. “We should do the same with this issue!” Explained the molecular biologist. New methods of genetic engineering in plant development are not dangerous, the treated plants are identical to nature and completely harmless, as more than 3000 studies have shown.

But it didn’t happen. In the end, the delegates voted with a large majority for a compromise formula for the federal executive committee. Harald Ebner, spokesman for the Greens’ genetic engineering policy, welcomes the decision on agrogenetic engineering as a “good decision.” “Alliance 90 / The Greens continue to be part of the technology assessment and caution,” he told WELT. With both old and new genetic engineering, there must be a risk assessment and a labeling requirement, the Greens have now decided. “This means that we defend people’s freedom of choice, which we also want to guarantee for future generations.”

Whether this is also seen in the scientific community is another question. A few days before the party’s congress, 150 professors and researchers wrote an open letter calling on the Greens to finally make progress on genetic engineering and not be fooled by false statements or news.

The federal executive committee’s compromise formula, which eventually reached out to opponents of genetic engineering rather than green supporters, seemed too tepid to many scientists. In the original proposal of the federal executive committee, it still said: “Research on new genetic engineering must be strengthened, as well as alternative approaches that are based on traditional methods of reproduction.” For many Greens, this apparently went too far. Before the party congress, the executive committee changed its proposal to the version that was later accepted. This only requires the strengthening of risk research and testing, as well as research on traditional and ecological breeding methods.

Robert Habeck personally took a position on the issue, and there was apparently great fear that the dispute would spiral out of control. There was no shame, a return to fundamental rejection found in the end only 170 supporters; 529 delegates voted for the party leadership’s proposal. However, the delegates of the “Science Party” – this is how they like to introduce themselves to the Greens – probably used old instincts on this issue rather than reacting to the new research results.

Otherwise, the digital marathon party conference was more lively than the digital state council that held the party in early May. Professional video statements and live contributions took turns, two moderators gave a humorous guide through the program on a corner sofa. Overcoming the climate crisis is the focus of current debates, but the program contains statements on all major areas of business and politics. Above all, the Greens want to demonstrate connectivity to the new program, in all directions.

Baerbock: “This time it’s green”

“Every time it has its color,” Annalena Baerbock said at the opening, “and this time it’s green.” At least Habeck tried in his appearance to address the citizens of the country who may not be entirely comfortable with the green claim of validity. “Some changes mean loss or fear of losing: the automaker who fears being on the road in a few years. The coalman whose open pit mine is closing. The peasant family that renounces the farm because it can no longer keep up with the growth competition, ”said the party leader. “All of these people deserve answers and perspectives that assure them respect and dignity.” The rulings likely also targeted those party members who view the loss of jobs in major industries as regrettable but unavoidable collateral damage in the fight against climate change.

“In 2019 we had a tailwind. In 2020 the wind came head-on! Habeck said. But 2021 will be the year “in which we will overcome”. The downturn in which the game was stuck in the middle of the year seems to be overcome. Political competition should only be surprised by the self-confidence and audacity of this party.