Germany’s Greens Have Transformed in the Face of Russia’s War
In Berlin, perhaps, where Hans-Christian Ströbele, a veteran of the left-wing arm of the party tweeted last week: “Are we a war party,” without adding a question mark. Politicians and media of the “NATO-Dt.,” which in all likelihood means “NATO Germany,” had “forced the delivery of tanks,” he wrote. What, then, makes them so sure there will be “no escalation to world war?” It’s “bad,” he wrote.
Ströbele belongs to the Green Party’s district association in Berlin’s joint Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district, which is considered strictly left wing. But even there, he seems to be for the most part alone.
“This war of aggression is a blatant violation of international law. Every country in the world has the right to defend itself,” says Philip Hiersemenzel, a member of the district association’s executive committee. “Now that all the diplomatic attempts have failed, there’s not much left but arms deliveries.”
But does everywhere here really see it that way? “Certainly not all people within our district group agree with my opinion,” Hiersemenzel says. “But of the people I talk to, most of them were already in favor of supplying heavy weapons.”
His colleague Jenny Laube, also a member of the executive committee, puts it this way: “For me, too, an evolution, a rethinking, has taken place in the last few weeks.”
Meaning?
“After using diplomacy and economic sanctions to try to stop the hostilities, the delivery of the heavy weapons is the next level of support for Ukraine. I mean, is there really any other milder remedy available right now?”
For Baerbock, Habeck and the Green Party leadership, these are the kinds of things they must be pleased to hear. There is no threat of an uproar, let alone a fracture in the party – the consensus right now is clear. The other question is whether this is also a good thing for political culture.
It probably isn’t.
It’s always healthy for a democracy if there is a diversity of opinion within the moderate forces, if points of view that deviate from the majority opinion are expressed within this moderate spectrum – and they aren’t only articulated in the margins by extreme forces. This is particularly true of the big issues.
The conservative Christian Democrats would like to supply even more weapons, and more quickly. It has also applauded the special fund for the German armed forces. In that sense, even though they are in the opposition, they aren’t really showing it. That leaves the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the far-left Left Party.
The Left Party at the moment has been shaken by allegations of sexual assault and is too caught up in its own scandals. Moreover, the party’s most prominent member remains Sahra Wagenknecht, who is also conspicuous in the current situation for her, for Germany at the moment, unusually high understanding for Russia. There is currently no serious opposition in Germany to arms deliveries to Ukraine and the upgrading of the German armed forces.
This could be politically dangerous, especially after the past two years of the pandemic. Populists and conspiracy theorists used that time to paint a picture of a party system in Germany in which all were supposedly in cahoots with each other. They will try to take advantage of the seeming unanimous support for both the arms deliveries and the billions in additional funding for the Bundeswehr. Their narrative will be: Once again, they all agree, in a line reminiscent of former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s widely backed policy of “there is no alternative.”
The most resistance right now is still within the SPD, the chancellor’s party, of all places. But if the party wants to prevent the further weakening Olaf Scholz, it will have to remain at least somewhat united. In that sense, it would be helpful to the debate if there were at least a little bit of debate among the Greens. And indeed, there does appear to be something at least stirring at the very base of the party. In, for example, Claudia Lux from the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Laux describes herself as a pacifist and, as such, she opposes the special fund for the Bundeswehr, as well as the NATO goal of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. She wants to see a party vote on both. “We at the grassroots want to know what the party things about this,” Laux says. She wants to push the vote through with some fellow campaigners.
One of the people behind the initiative is Philipp Schmagold of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, a man who is something of a legend at Green Party conferences because of the constant slew of motions he introduces. He says: “We’re supposed to spend the extra 100 billion euros on the arms industry, but we really need the money for climate and species protection, the shift to renewable energies, social security, education, health and civil crisis prevention.”