In January 2022, the Greens elected her as the youngest chairwoman in the party’s history. Lang recently announced her retirement. Emotionally, it was difficult afterwards, she says.
After announcing her withdrawal, Green Party leader Ricarda Lang said she experienced emotionally intense moments. In a “Zeit” interview, she describes the days after the press conference on September 25th, where she and co-chair Omid Nouripour announced the resignation of the party executive in mid-November. “After I resigned, I had the feeling at times that I was at my own funeral,” she says. People would ask her in a quiet voice, “Well, Ricarda, how are you?” Life without a top office isn’t so bad after all.
Lang and Nouripour were confirmed in office in November 2023 – at that time, the current federal executive board was actually elected for two years. “New faces are needed to lead the party out of this crisis,” said Lang, explaining her withdrawal after the bitter defeat in the state elections in Brandenburg.
Sad and liberating at the same time
She describes her emotional state at the time in an interview with “Zeit” as follows: “On the day of my resignation I was sad, but in some ways also relieved.” The following day she made appointments again and “worked on things”. A week later, when SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert resigned, she says she was “really emotionally blown away.” “I sat in front of my cell phone and cried,” says Lang, who describes Kühnert not only as a long-time political companion, but also as a friend. It was a bit like “as if part of my resignation had only become clear to myself at that moment.”
Looking back, Lang self-critically says that, given the many prejudices and false attributions that she was confronted with at the beginning of her time as chairwoman, she probably tried to offer as little attack as possible, “to be as serious, smooth and perfect as possible.” . From today’s perspective, this was a mistake because it meant that other people were “leaving the power of interpretation over themselves”.
Source: Stern
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