Lang and Nouripour lead Greens in federal election
Despite a difficult situation, the Greens have confirmed their leadership trio at the party conference in Karlsruhe. Chairpersons Lang and Nouripour as well as Managing Director Büning achieved high results, despite the occasional doubts expressed.
The Greens will continue to contest the second half of the legislative period with Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour at the helm of the party. Despite weak poll results, several state election defeats and a profound dissent in the party over the federal government's asylum policy, both incumbents were confirmed with very good results.
With around 82% of the vote, Lang even received around six points more than two years ago. Nouripour achieved 79%, but also had an opponent in Philipp Schmagold. Federal Managing Director Emily Büning received 83% of the vote. The trio is therefore responsible for the course and preparation of the Greens for the 2025 federal elections, where the party wants to continue to fight for the office of Chancellor.
"These were two grueling years, but they were the easy years, the two hard ones are yet to come," said Nouripour in his candidacy speech. There have also been moments of doubt. "Doubt is so often a good advisor, but fear is not," said the 48-year-old. However, there had also been a moment "that almost brought me to the brink of giving up". During the Iranian "Women, Freedom, Life" wave of protests, relatives from Iran had asked him to be quieter in Germany and to criticize the Iranian regime less aggressively. "Not everyone survived that," said the Tehran-born Green. "I stand here and promise you: I can't keep it down, I can't help it."
"A new promise of justice"
Nouripour and Lang both praised their good cooperation despite their sometimes differing views. Lang admitted mistakes in her candidacy speech: She had noticed that she had "sometimes drifted a bit into the technocratic" in pressure situations, the 29-year-old said, presumably with a view to the debate on the heating bill. "What has faded into the background is what people are concerned about and what they are feeling right now." In future, she and the party must be better able to address people's concerns and fears, particularly with regard to the middle income groups. "We need a new promise of justice for the middle of society," said Lang.
At the same time, she called on the party not to allow itself to be driven back into a political niche by the competition. "We will not allow ourselves to be lectured on reality by those who have made escaping reality their political principle," cried Lang. Nouripour refused to take a tougher line on the coalition partner FDP in the federal government. "We have a lot of disputes and I believe it is the responsibility of all of us to do everything we can to reduce them," said Nouripour and called for more frustration tolerance. It is "more important that the country makes progress, not how we are doing with it".
A signal to the outside world
Nouripour is the representative of the Realos at the top of the party, while Lang is the voice of the party's left. Both were elected federal chairmen in 2021 as successors to current Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck. Büning succeeded Michael Kellner, who Habeck succeeded as Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics in 2021. The election results can be seen as a sign that the party is closing ranks in difficult times, despite frustration and doubts about its own role in the federal government. After all, such good election results were not necessarily to be expected and the trio is not without controversy.
Under Lang and Nouripour, the party suffered some painful state election defeats. In its external communications, the Green leadership repeatedly fell behind the times or failed to find a way to allay the concerns and fears of the population - for example with regard to the heating law. The three also find it difficult to counter attacks in discussions with their political rivals, much to the chagrin of the federal ministers who are obliged to exercise more restraint. Büning in particular cannot or does not want to fill the role of the sometimes ranting Secretary General, as Kellner had done and the SPD still has with Kevin Kühnert.
Asylum debate on Saturday
The two chairmen sometimes seem at a loss when dealing with the strong headwind that has been blowing against the party for months, but always present each other as an undaunted and cheerful top duo. Camp battles, which characterized the party until 2019, rarely broke out under Lang and Nouripour. This made the disagreement over the German government's approval of the compromise on EU asylum reform all the more striking in the spring. Lang, like large sections of the party base, considered it wrong that in future minors traveling alone and families with children could be detained in Europe's external border states under detention-like conditions as part of external border procedures.
Other tightening of asylum laws, such as the expansion of the list of safe countries of origin and the extension of police powers in deportation procedures, are also rejected by many on the left of the party. At the small party conference in Bad Vilbel in spring, the party leadership was only able to prevent a motion with great difficulty that would have placed tight restrictions on Foreign Minister Baerbock in further negotiations on asylum reform. The issue could boil up again late on Saturday evening when the party wants to debate the EU asylum reform. The Green Youth wants to oblige the Green representatives in the cabinet not to agree to any further tightening of asylum laws in Germany and Europe.
In Karlsruhe, the Greens will not only elect their executive committee and the extended executive committee known as the party council. At the mammoth four-day party conference, the European election program is also to be finalized and the list of European election candidates determined. This saves money for a separate European party conference, but is also a feat of strength that also costs the European politicians media attention. On Thursday, the Greens debated the consequences of the Karlsruhe budget ruling. In a speech that was met with much applause , Federal Economics Minister Habeck called for a reform of the debt brake and sharply criticized the CDU/CSU, above all CDU leader Friedrich Merz.
Source: www.ntv.de
