German Greens see success for climate protection in planned constitutional reform. “We as the Greens have significantly changed the government’s plans of the Union and SPD” said Green Faction Chief Britta Haßelmann to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” on Sunday.
“The agreement means that climate protection will not be degraded to a secondary issue.” The Greens are now calling on the future black-red government coalition under potential Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) to hold on to existing reform plans. “We expect that necessary reforms of the past years will not be rolled back” Haßelmann said. “They must continue.”
During the election campaign, Merz had announced plans to repeal initiatives like the heating law.
The Greens are harshly critical of the obstructionist politics of the Union and FDP regarding a reform of the debt brake before the Bundestag election. “We will definitely not take an example from the opposition work of CDU and CSU” Haßelmann said. “Everyone knew that a reform of the debt brake and investments were urgently needed.” The Union, however, had refused. “That was wrong and bitter.” Such a stance harms “parliamentary democracy and poisons the discourse in the country” Haßelmann said, who leads the faction together with Katharina Dröge.
Party Chairman Felix Banaszak wants to make the Greens’ climate course more aggressive than before on the topic. “A no-plan coalition is forming between the Union and SPD” he warned. For the Greens, it is “also a chance to rekindle the connection and emotional closeness to the climate and environmental movement, which had become brittle in times of grand coalitions.” It’s not about simply becoming “left” – which may indeed be the case in parts – but primarily about being “green”. The party must “show attack spirit and debate enthusiasm, but also humor”. A party that lives its values and stands open to them even in the face of headwinds “can also win people over for itself.