Green Party leadership: The same people always (don’t) resign (opinion)

It was clear. That was the only thing I thought when I heard Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour before the Green Party’s resignation. So clear. Who will step down again and take political responsibility? A woman and a man with migrant roots. And with it two social groups that are already massively underrepresented in German politics.

Who doesn’t step down again, doesn’t take responsibility and at the same time – oh wonder – is completely overrepresented on the political stage? Friedrich, Markus, Christian, Olaf, Rolf, Kevin, Lars, Jens, Robert – white, bio-German cis men.

And I don’t want to get into the content here at all about who did what wrong, what goals the Green Party board set for themselves and failed to achieve, and what ideals they betrayed to their voters.

My point is that even in 2024 our politics will obviously not be able to be even remotely diverse. And when it does succeed, the marginalized people are immediately the ones who have to jump over the sword first. And this pattern repeats itself over and over again.

Women who resign, men who stay

The last few years are a prime example of this: 2022 – who will resign as the first minister in the Scholz cabinet? Anne Spiegel – a woman. At least the position could be filled with another woman – after all, it was “only” about the family ministry. 2023 – there are rumblings in the Ministry of Defense, who will resign as Defense Minister? Christine Lambrecht – a woman. Here Scholz had to bite the unwonted apple and name a man for the defense. Unfortunately, the army and women don’t go well together.

2024 – things are rumbling in Berlin, who will announce their resignation as Berlin’s mayor? Franziska Giffey – a woman. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer resigned as CDU leader in 2020. Andrea Nahles resigned as SPD leader in 2019. I could go on like this forever.

But what’s much more exciting is who hasn’t resigned during all these times, not even a little bit: Mask deal scandal – who hasn’t resigned? Jens Spahn. Scandal Laughing fit during flood – who didn’t resign? Armin Laschet. Scandal climate goals completely missed – who hasn’t resigned? Volker Wissing. Scandal leaflet affair – who didn’t resign? Hubert Aiwanger. Scandal “I don’t remember dubious banking transactions” – who didn’t resign? Olaf Scholz. And our favorite scandal noodle, Mr. Pkw-Maut himself – who hasn’t resigned? Andreas Scheuer. Christian “We got 0.8 percent in Brandenburg, I’ll still stay in office” Lindner and Friedrich “little pashas” Merz I don’t need to mention. In other words: Who is just too happy to stick to the influential political chair despite all the scandals? The white, German cis man.

Marginalized people are often more competent

And no, that’s not even a sign that women or people with migrant roots are perhaps simply not that resilient, or not competent enough or, especially for women, “too weak” for the political stage or some other racist-sexist bullshit. Exactly the opposite is the case: marginalized people who make it into politics are often much more qualified and competent than many of their mostly male, mostly white political counterparts.

The reason: Women and especially migrant women – studies show this – have to work a lot more overtime in the professional context and prove themselves a lot more than equally qualified men in order to even be recommended for a leadership role. This means – if we look at women in particular – the few of them who make it to the top in politics are, statistically speaking, more competent and better prepared for that reason alone.

And people from marginalized groups usually have a thick skin because they have to go through a much tougher school from an early age: Here too, studies show that women or people of color in politics have to suffer significantly more hate and hatred in comment columns , on the street, on social media. Not to mention rape fantasies and death threats via DM.

We prefer a certain gender

Because of all these things and because of the fact that, due to all these adversities, there are currently only 36 percent women in the Bundestag and only eleven percent people with migrant roots. And the fact that 90 percent (!) of all mayors nationwide are currently men and only ten percent are women – against this background, it almost borders on refusing to work if our political system does not manage to represent women and people with a migration background in parliament according to their proportions and – very important – to keep them there!

And woe betide someone who now starts commenting for the hundred thousandth time that it’s probably not the gender or the origin that matters, but the quality; and we probably shouldn’t place our well-being in political hands just because of their gender. Yes, of course we shouldn’t! But that’s exactly what we do! And it has always been!

We’ve always favored a certain gender in politics; We always prefer to choose only a certain gender; We already allow a certain gender to get away with a lot more in politics and set much lower standards: the white, German cis man!

So if at some point in a distant galaxy far, far away we finally manage to set up, elect and retain political representatives, they really… all groups reflect our society, I promise never again to be based on gender and to only look at quality.

But as long as the imbalance in representation is as blatant as it is in Germany; and as long as we still have such a one-sided preference for a single gender group, must we are collectively upset about it. Excited that it wasn’t them who resigned, but the others again.