Disappointed Greens: Crisis in the Greens: Hamburg MP resigns

The Greens have not yet overcome the crisis triggered by the party’s poor performance in the last state elections. Several young party members made their resignation from the party public on Friday, including Hamburg Green MP Ivy May Müller.

Müller said she also wanted to leave the Greens faction in the Hamburg parliament and join the Left faction as a non-party. This follows the resignation of the Federal Executive Board of the Green Youth, which was announced the day before. In a statement, Müller wrote: “I will no longer stand for a Green Party policy that does not take fears of relegation seriously and does not address the major social injustices in society.”

The state board of the Green Youth in Bavaria is also leaving

The entire state board of the Green Youth in Bavaria also wants to leave the party. “The reason for this is the process of alienation from the Green Party over the last few months and years. We can no longer and do not want to support many of the decisions that the Greens have made when participating in government, as well as the current programmatic, substantive and strategic course,” said the eight-member group Head of the Green Youth Bavaria.

They mentioned the Bundeswehr’s special funds, the evacuation of the brown coal mining town of Lützerath, citizens’ money and the reform of the European asylum system and complained about an insufficient strategy against the right. There were too many conflicts with the party “and we repeatedly found that the Greens were not the left-wing project we wanted,” it said.

“The Green Youth is and remains our critical and opinionated youth association,” said the Bavarian state chairwoman of the Green Party, Eva Lettenbauer, when asked. According to Lettenbauer, the board members will continue to manage the business organizationally until the planned new board election at the end of November. “There are already many young people ready who would like to continue being active in the Green Youth.” The “Augsburger Allgemeine” also reported on it.

“Insurmountable contradictions” with the party

The dual leadership of the Green Youth in Lower Saxony is also withdrawing from the party. Rukia Soubbotina and David Christner justified this with “insurmountable contradictions” with the party.

“We have repeatedly seen in recent years how the Greens are moving further and further away from putting the social issue at the center,” said Soubbotina. As examples, she cited the support of citizen’s money sanctions, tightening of asylum law and the lack of “answers to the housing crisis”.

Protest against the withdrawal of the Green Party leadership

Late on Wednesday evening it became known that the federal executive board of the Green Youth wanted to resign from the party in protest against the Greens’ course and set up a new left-wing youth association.

Shortly before, the entire federal executive board of the party, headed by co-chairs Omid Nouripour and Ricarda Lang, had announced its resignation in mid-November. The party leadership is drawing conclusions from the failures of the Greens in the recent elections.

Green Bundestag member Julian Pahlke told the German Press Agency that he could understand the frustration of many young party members. “I think the move by the board of the Green Youth is wrong,” he added. Because strong Green youth are still urgently needed.

The resignation of the federal executive board is an opportunity for a new beginning for the Green Youth. Pahlke emphasized that the resignations and frustration gave rise to an order. The party must fight much harder to protect refugees and people with a migration history. He demanded: “This must now be a turning point for our party.”