The old board of the party youth is leaving due to dissatisfaction with the Greens – now there is a new one. How does the new leadership feel about the parent party? And what topics are important to you?
New board, traffic light criticism, debates on the thematic course: The Green Youth set the course for its future in terms of personnel and content at its federal congress at the weekend in Leipzig. After the old board withdrew, the focus was on electing a new leadership duo: the participants in the congress elected 25-year-old Jette Nietzard and 24-year-old Jakob Blasel as their new chairmen.
In terms of content, the demands and debates focused on the topics of climate protection, asylum policy and social justice. There was sharp criticism of the traffic light coalition and the Greens – but there was also not always agreement about their own direction.
What role climate protection should play
With the election of Jakob Blasel, one of the better-known faces of the Fridays for Future climate movement is now leading the Green Youth. The law and environmental science student criticized that it could not be the case that the federal government failed to implement a social and ambitious heat transition or a cheap and good railway.
Almost a year before the federal election, the question was also raised as to how much the issue should be the focus of the election campaign. The call for a “climate election campaign” clashed with the view that climate protection should be a central issue, but that the issue of migration should not be forgotten.
Great dissatisfaction among young people with asylum policy
Members of the party’s youth repeatedly criticized a shift to the right in asylum policy at the congress – and also held the parent party responsible. Discontent was sparked, among other things, by the so-called security package that the traffic light coalition launched after the suspected Islamist-motivated attack in Solingen.
Among other things, this decided to exclude asylum seekers from state benefits for whose requests for protection under the so-called Dublin rules another European country is responsible – if it is legally and actually possible for them to leave the country. There should be exceptions if children are affected. The “security package” restricts the rights of refugees and forces them to live below the subsistence level, was an accusation from the ranks of the Green Youth.
Its new chairman Nietzard is committed to refugees and emphasized: “When people in the federal government tell me that we need upper limits, that we have to deport people faster, then I want to shout at them: We don’t need upper limits, we need human dignity.”
Chairman: Punch up instead of kicking down
Nietzard works at the German Children’s Fund and originally joined the Green Party to end child poverty. “Large corporations are making record profits while people are losing their jobs,” she criticized. Too many people still worked in the low-wage sector. However, the problems cannot be solved by agitating against refugees or recipients of citizens’ benefits, “but by fighting together for a society that doesn’t step down, but punches up.”
In an application, the Green Youth called for the statutory minimum wage to be extended to young people. The statutory minimum wage does not apply to people under 18 who have not completed vocational training. Blasel accused the traffic light coalition of not having social justice on their agenda.
Displeasure with the actions of the old board
The criticism from the party youth was also directed against the old leadership team, which has now been replaced. At the end of September, the former board of directors around Svenja Appuhn and Katharina Stolla announced that they would first be leaving the party – and then also the Green Youth. The reason: too little left-wing profile among the Greens, too many compromises in the traffic light coalition.
After the federal congress, the dropouts now want to found a new, left-wing youth association. They advertise it under the slogan “Time for something new”. Dozens of members from numerous state associations of the Green Youth followed them.
The Green Youth in Leipzig occasionally made conciliatory comments – but the majority were dissatisfied. The allegations concerned communication initially directed at the press rather than members, but also involvement in “left-wing fragmentation” and the establishment of a “competing organization.”
What the party youth demands from the Greens
The Green Youth reiterated that it was not their job to support the government’s compromises. Instead, the Greens want to stand up for their own positions. “Our support is not unconditional,” it said. Real solutions are expected for humane asylum and socially acceptable climate policy, for example.
Current party leader Ricarda Lang admitted to the traditionally left-wing party youth that mistakes had been made in dealing with the issue of migration. The Greens believed they had nothing to gain from this. They would now have to resume the fight for the authority to interpret this issue in the government.
Information about the Federal Congress
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.
