The Greens have rejected the accusation by SPD leader Lars Klingbeil that they want to become junior partners of the Union as a diversion. Criticism also came from the CDU. “Every year, the SPD warns of a Black-Green government, only to then flee into a new coalition with the CDU the next time around” said Green party chairman Felix Banaszak to the “Tagesspiegel”.
He understood Klingbeil’s criticism “as a maneuver to divert attention from the poor popularity ratings of Olaf Scholz” said Banaszak. Green party chancellor candidate Robert Habeck is making “a very serious offer of an alternative to the fight between yesterday and the day before, which Olaf Scholz and Friedrich Merz are staging.” Habeck’s offer is finding “growing acceptance from week to week.”
Klingbeil had previously accused the Greens of seeking a government alliance with the CDU and CSU. “The Greens want to be junior partners of the Union. They’re not playing to win. They’re practically throwing themselves at Merz’s neck. This is what differentiates the Greens from the SPD” said Klingbeil to the “Tagesspiegel.”
Former Green party chairman Omid Nouripour accused the SPD of a lack of sincerity. “The SPD made Merkel Chancellor three times, not the Greens” he told the newspaper: “The Germans’ memory should not be underestimated.”
Klingbeil also faced opposition from the Union: “The SPD’s ship is sinking” said Dennis Radtke, chairman of the CDU’s worker’s wing CDA, to the “Tagesspiegel.” The SPD’s catch-up efforts are not making progress, “so the SPD is now afraid of not even being allowed to sit at the table as a junior partner.” The SPD has been in power since 1998, with a four-year break, said Radtke: “They need to take a longer break and find themselves.” The necessary foreign policy changes “won’t be made with the SPD’s Moscow connection.