At their party conference this weekend in Bonn, the Greens want to deal with current problems. “People are wondering how we’re going to get through the fall and winter and want answers from politicians. And we want to give answers at the weekend,” said the party’s national political secretary, Emily Büning, on Wednesday in Berlin.
The party meets in “crisis-prone times,” said Büning, who referred to the war in Ukraine, the protests in Iran, inflation and high energy prices and the upcoming next pandemic winter.
“Unlike the CDU, we don’t want to and can’t primarily deal with ourselves this weekend,” announced Büning. “Instead, we are negotiating the big and difficult questions of this time” to which the Greens, as a party in government responsibility, would have to give answers.
Important issues are pending
According to current plans, Friday will be about high inflation, social cohesion and strengthening the economy, as well as securing the energy supply in winter. Saturday is dedicated to security and foreign policy, also in view of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. On Sunday it will be about climate protection.
According to the party, around 800 delegates and around 1000 guests from politics, business and civil society are expected to attend the first Green party conference in almost three years, at which the participants will gather in full force in attendance from Friday to Sunday. Among them are the DGB chair Yasmin Fahimi, the BDI chair Siegfried Russwurm and the co-founder of the Russian human rights organization Memorial, Irina Scherbakova. The last regular party conference, at which at least some of the delegates were only present online, not due to the pandemic, took place in Bielefeld in November 2019.
Controversy over arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia
There could be differences to the government line in foreign and climate policy. In an amendment supported by a number of members of the Bundestag, a complete implementation of the arms embargo for Saudi Arabia is demanded. The traffic light government had recently given the go-ahead for the delivery of equipment and ammunition for fighter jets to the country, despite an extensive export ban.
The Green Youth criticizes the coal agreement recently concluded between the green-led economics ministries in the federal government and in North Rhine-Westphalia and the energy company RWE. This provides for the phase-out of coal in the Rhenish mining area to be brought forward by eight years to 2030, while at the same time two lignite-fired power plants are to run longer than previously planned in view of the current energy crisis. The Lützerath settlement, which is a symbol of the climate protection movement, is to be demolished in order to mine coal there.
Timon Dzienus, co-head of the youth organisation, demanded that the party congress should vote in favor of retaining Lützerath. “There needs to be a moratorium on this clearing season and further talks, as well as a review of the reports based on our climate targets.”
For the Green Party Congress
