Green party congress 2008: Moving more - but what?
He wants to get in. The bouncer does not let him. No identity card, no admission, that's how easy it is in Erfurt at the Federal Delegation Conference of the Greens. "But that's the party leader," hisses a companion. Finally, Reinhard Bütikofer - even without identifying himself - may enter the exhibition hall and hold his farewell speech as chairman of the Greens.
I still have to think about this scene over the next few hours: An appropriate prelude to the struggle of the Greens for power and attitudes. How the approximately 500 delegates argue over their position on energy policy on the first evening of the three-day event takes on bizarre features. Although there is broad agreement on the matter: the complete renunciation of non-renewable energies should be established. But when? 2030? Better only as a goal, without a time limit? Or already in 2020? The mood heats up. We have to be more courageous. No, more realistic. No, no, no radical.
Gosh, people, I think, do you want to take people or stay with you? Do you want to win elections or compete in the principals? Debates, fierce and endless, are wanted. This is already ensured by the statute. Only with the party Alliance 90 / The Greens, in principle, all delegates have the opportunity to speak at any time. Who wants to say something throws a note in a pot. There are one for women and one for men. The lot decides who is allowed to talk. Fiftyfifty women and men. And while the strangers and the celebrities talk and talk, the papers on the tables of the delegates and journalists are stacked with amendments to amendments. Unceasingly new notes are distributed.
In between, green Jung activists with mask are storming and a giant nail made of papier-mâché on the grandstand, they want to nail Renate Künast and Jürgen Trittin on a course against coal power plants. In the elections, Realo Fritz Kuhn flies from the party council, the party part Claudia Roth is confirmed as party leader, the moderate Cem Özdemir elected successor to Bütikofer. Anything is possible with the Greens, and one rarely knows for sure how a vote will turn out.
But this multi-faceted and laborious self-discovery process has qualities. It functions as a kind of proxy debate for many people struggling for an attitude, gives them a voice: For example, those who say I do not want nuclear power plants and no coal-fired power plants. I am for solar and wind energy. But I want to keep it warm, and I'm not sure that it really works with regenerative energies. I care about the environment, but I want to drive to work in stupid weather and fly to Barcelona on the weekend. I do not want to give up everything, but I'm too much ready ...
In the figurative sense, this also applies to the party. After seven years of government participation and three years in which she had little say in Germany, she is ready for much. One party is looking for its position: It is working to unite extra-parliamentary movements, while at the same time looking for new government participation. The young Greens Julia Seeliger raves enthusiastically of the festival-like mood at the Castor blockade, still hoarse from their 79-hour use in freezing cold. Nice for Seeliger. A pity, it remains her only contribution. Is that really enough for voters?
To move more, so the motto of the congress. But what and where? The original green issues (environment, peace, civil rights) have long been taken up by other parties. And what happens now? Does ideological consequence in an established party into insignificance? Or does pragmatic realism make the party so interchangeable that there is no reason to vote for it? The discussions that will be conducted in the coming months are of great importance for the future of the party. A Reala puts it in a nutshell in Erfurt: We have to convince the people, not our own members. Right. Otherwise the Greens may have to stay outside.
Discuss with: Radical or realistic - where should the Greens go?
