The Greens lose the entire federal executive board of their Green Youth. They are desperate about the traffic light coalition and want to initiate a movement from which a new left-wing party will emerge.
“Bring on the good life for everyone!”: This is the slogan of Katharina Stolla, one of two federal spokespersons for the Green Youth, on her X-Account. However, she is no longer looking for the good life with the Greens. Under the label “Time for something new”, twelve people, including the entire current federal board of the Green Youth, want to build a new political movement outside of the Greens.
Their paper, which can be read on the website , starts with a paragraph that reads like the analysis of why so many young voters in Brandenburg voted for the AfD:
“For years, one thing has been the main thing: crisis. The future makes us more afraid than hopeful. The promise of advancement no longer applies to our generation. More and more people are experiencing that politics is being made over their heads. Food prices are rising, rents are exploding, hard work is hardly valued anymore. The AfD is profiting from this frustration.”
“The traffic light is a bitter disappointment”
And then sentences that should hit the Greens right to the core: “We all joined the Greens over the last ten years because we thought they could become this force. But our doubts about that have grown ever greater.” And further: “Before the last federal election, many people hoped for a change in policy: more social justice, more climate protection, progress. But the traffic light coalition is a bitter disappointment. Effective criticism of the government only comes from the right.” And finally, the main accusation: “The Greens are not prepared to take on the rich and powerful.”
Former Green Youth Executive Board: “All supposed practical constraints”
These are statements that sum up the Greens’ dilemma in the traffic light coalition: not only do voters not thank them for their stance of civic responsibility, but parts of their own youth are also turning away because of it. Ricarda Lang, the Green Party’s federal chairwoman who resigned yesterday together with Omid Nouripour, had made it her task to promote the Greens’ commitment to social problems and to make it visible.
Apparently, this has not even been achieved with regard to their own youth organization. “We believe that the Greens are losing sight of the policies they are actually supporting because of all the supposed practical constraints,” says the statement from the (former) board of the Green Youth and its fellow campaigners.
Künast on resignations: “I won’t cry”
The initial reaction from the Green Party to the exit was rather unforgiving. Renate Künast, former Minister of Agriculture and Green Party leader, commented on the exit on the radio station RBB with the words: “I am not surprised and I am not crying. I believe that there are many young people in and around the party who can now perhaps get involved more freely with the Greens.”
The current parliamentary group leader of the Greens in the Bundestag, Katharina Dröge, told Deutschlandfunk that she had “advised that those who are now leaving the Green Youth should stay and promote a different policy.” Dröge was once chairwoman of the Green Youth herself, during the time of the red-green federal government. It had always been a “prickly youth organization.” In fact, the current federal executive board of the Green Youth had also regularly attracted attention with very fundamentalist positions.
Of course, parliamentary group leader Dröge can hope that the former federal executive of the Young Greens will remain in the party. But their plan is different: The group wants to found a new movement with the long-term goal of creating a “strong left-wing party in Germany”. “A party that is not like all the others.” The question is whether there is actually room for such a departure alongside BSW, the Left Party and the many small left-wing parties – and the current polarization on all sides.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
