The worst Green state association in the world: Berlin

Party conference canceled - The worst Green state association in the world: Berlin

The Berlin Greens held their party conference at the weekend. In the election for the chairmanship, the delegates failed the candidate of the Realo wing in three ballots. Without any opposing candidate. Tanja Prinz was downright humiliated with 25, 26 and 27 percent before storming out of the hall in tears. The rest was lost in the chaos. Party conference interrupted, to be continued on Wednesday. Happy Advent everyone.

The event confirms a common prejudice, no, it cements a verdict that those involved have truly earned: The Berlin Greens are the worst state association of their party.

You could call it a sentence with no particular news value, because it has never really been any different since the Alternative List was founded. They have always acted as if the prophecy of the Cree had been handed down incorrectly: "Only when the last tree has been cleared, the last river poisoned, the last fish caught, will you realize that the Berlin Greens are smoking something very special in their pipe."

Now, it is often difficult to judge from the outside what something is really about. Not in this case. It was a debacle with an announcement. As a representative of a group that advocates a more middle-class approach to domestic and migration policy, candidate Prinz only won a narrow majority in the Realo wing.

Don't mess with the latte-loaded left

How difficult was it going to be with the Latte-Lastenrad left? Or how adventurous, because only the day before, nine out of twelve district associations, including that of the candidate herself, had accused her Realo group of dubious methods in an open letter. So the dispute had already escalated to the maximum before the party conference began. Don't tell anyone he/she wasn't warned.

Whatever it was in the end, whether it was an agreement that was not kept, a warning that was overheard or a sneak attack, none of this speaks for the professionalism of those involved, for their political ability.

If politics, especially that which is celebrated at party conferences, is a form of performing art, then the Greens have once again delivered something between tragicomedy and farce.

Of course, show is not everything and politics is largely a craft. But let's talk about craftsmanship. Let's talk about how the Berlin Greens have managed to pluck themselves out of government and into opposition in record time and quite rightly so. You have to achieve that in a city that is largely as green as Freiburg or Tübingen!

Culture war in the pedestrian zone

Here, people are instigating a culture war over a pedestrian zone that, together with its thrown-together street furniture, exudes about as much charm as the employee parking lot of the Neckarwestheim 2 nuclear power plant. In the drizzle.

Here, people are fighting tooth and nail to prevent even a peripheral(!) development of the 350-hectare former Tempelhof Airport. Why should they? People here prefer to solve housing problems by expropriation - not those of the Swabian community of heirs, don't worry, just those of the big real estate companies.

Here you are always at cross purposes with your own federal party - and as far as that is concerned, the CDU and SPD are no different from the Greens.

This is where Markus Söder can always cry the loudest about his billions in state financial equalization. Merz's next Gillamoos speech will write itself.

The party conference is to continue on Wednesday. Until then, it is important to "keep calm", warns co-chairman Philmon Ghirmai, who still has to be re-elected. That fits quite well in these times when wishing helps again.