Green Party Conference: Proud and wistful: Nouripour says goodbye

Top Greens have said goodbye to their positions in the party leadership with emotional speeches. “We’re leaving because things didn’t go well,” says chairman Omid Nouripour about the withdrawal of the entire federal executive board around him and co-chair Ricarda Lang. The leadership announced the move after three unsuccessful state elections at the end of September, and their successors are to be elected on Saturday.

Proud of a united front with Lang

Looking back, he is most proud of the fact that he and Lang formed the first dual Green Party leadership that ever managed to ensure that “there was not a single word of discord between us in the newspaper for three years.” The Greens must now concentrate on the most important things, such as climate protection and social justice. “Diversity is not just the sum of all minorities,” he emphasized. The Greens would have to be a party for everyone – the concerns of the proverbial “old white man” would also have to be addressed.

“This job is an imposition on family life,” says Nouripour. His family saw every day “how someone goes beyond their physical and emotional limits.” The fact that he endured that has a lot to do with their support. Nouripour was greeted with thunderous applause by the delegates.

“We’re packing this up now.”

Federal Political Director Emily Büning also leaves office in front of the hundreds of delegates and guests, which roughly corresponds to that of a general secretary for other parties. In view of the weak poll numbers, she encourages her party friends: “But you can’t give up halfway. We’ll get it together now!” After all, the Greens, with their now almost 140,000 members, are more numerous than ever.

Büning says she still believes in the success of a left-wing, feminist, European and progressive party. She also takes a critical look back at the talk groups in which she took part on election evenings with representatives of other parties and whose participants, mainly male, she accused of “goofing off”. “In this heated world, we need more enablers than heaters,” she says, as someone who maintains quiet tones.

Habeck nomination only on Sunday

How much support Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck, who has taken a stand for this, has in his party will become clear in the vote on a proposal from the Federal Executive Board planned for Sunday. It says: “We are fighting for a strong green result in the coming federal election. To achieve this, we are running with Robert Habeck as a candidate for the people of Germany.”

Anyone who wants to provide practical support can also follow a call called “Join Team Robert”.

The federal party conference was planned for a long time. The Green Party delegates want to meet again in time before the federal election scheduled for February 23rd – to decide on their election program. The place and time for this are not yet known.