A German politician, Rasmus Andresen, has written an internal paper, reported by the “Spiegel”, in which he assesses the campaign of his party, the Greens, during the recent federal election in Germany. Andresen, a member of the European Parliament, argues that the Greens failed to capitalize on the opportunity to win over Union voters, who were dissatisfied with the leadership of the Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) Friedrich Merz.
Instead, the Greens, according to Andresen, fell into a trap, much like US presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who was perceived as popular and gaining momentum, leading to overconfidence within the party. The internal paper suggests that the Greens had structural flaws before the election and the time that followed was not sufficient to build new trust with voters.
Andresen, who hails from the Flensburg constituency of the Greens’ chancellor candidate, Robert Habeck, warns of the party’s risk of becoming a protest party in the opposition, following the success of the Left party in the election. The Greens suffered a significant decline in their vote share, from 14.7% in 2021 to 11.6% in the recent election.