I’ll tell you how the Greens in Germany look at the industrial world

29 November 20203 years ago babelfish

What changes after the programmatic congress of the Greens in Germany in view of possible agreements with the CDU. The in-depth study by Pierluigi Mennitti from Berlin

There is still no black-green coalition in Germany, but ecologists seem to have already internalized one of the principles of Merkelism. In search of the right route to cross the CDU vessel orphaned by the chancellor in just under a year, the Grünen developed in the virtual congress last weekend the program that will lead them to the elections of 26 September 2021, and perhaps to government with the conservatives. A program in pure Merkelian style, as Spiegel observed: “Don't bind to anything, keep every option open”. Behind the curtain of pleasant formulas, observed the weekly, there is a great nothing, which everyone can fill as they wish.

For years now, the former rebel and anti-party formation has been transformed into a pragmatic force, passing through the experience of the federal government with Gerhard Schröder's SPD and then the administrative leadership of many cities and regions. Up until 2011, with the “realist” Winfried Kretchmann, the management of an industrial and conservative Land such as Baden-Württemberg, snatched from the Christian-Democrats. From that moment, the rise of the pragmatic component – the “Realo” – within the party was unstoppable, until the election two years ago of a young and modern presidential duo like Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck.

The congress marked a further step in this direction, perhaps the decisive one to make ecologism compatible with conservatism and to embark the party into an alliance with the CDU and the CSU which, after the experience in neighboring Austria, is no longer unprecedented in Europe, but it is always an innovative and adventurous path.

The greens feel a little less wind in their tail than they did a year ago. The pandemic has slowed the rise in consensus that seemed unstoppable, overshadowed concerns about the climate and the environment and froze the street pressure of movements such as Friday for Future. On the internal level, it has restored centrality to those who manage the Covid crisis personally, Angela Merkel and the Minister of Health Jens Spahn, therefore in fact the CDU. But ecology always remains a central theme, destined to take back the scene once the pandemic is behind us, especially if linked to sustainable economic development. And it is this trend that the Grünen have been busy for some time now, finding in it the key to redefine themselves in a modern key and to present themselves as the political force capable of combining economy and environment.

The idea of building a new economic system, one of the mantra of the greens since their birth, is no longer declined in strategies of subversion of the existing capitalist model, but aims at its transformation, also accepting gradualism. Reconciling economy and ecology is the mission of the next decades, in line with the European plans of the Green Deal, with the sensitivities of large sections of the urban bourgeoisie and with the interests of the company, now convinced of having to make the leap towards a production that tends towards climate neutrality.

The frictions with the industrialists are now a thing of the past, the greens are proposing themselves as the most reliable partners for this reconciliation project and the entrepreneurs are beginning to believe that they really have the keys to transport the economy into a new era. The paradox is that, in an economy dominated by CO2 emission certificates and prices, capitalism is no longer the problem but the solution. The more the economy evolves digitally and technologically, the faster and more effectively climate neutrality goals can be achieved, argue the Grünens.

And for this, in the updated program, concepts have appeared that until a few years ago were considered taboo. Such as economic growth, which now the German Grünen no longer question by longing for more or less happy degrowths, but consider essential for the achievement of ecological objectives.

That the internal tension with the idealist component, more linked to the traditional anti-capitalist path, is always present is testified by the two blitzes operated by the base during the congress, one failed, the other successful. The tug-of-war over defining the type of economic model to aspire to in the program focused on the concept of the market. The management had proposed a “socio-ecological market system”, an explicit reference to the Erhardian tradition of the social market economy, the mantra of all the German political forces (albeit with different declinations) and the undisputed foundations of the economic framework of the CDU. A motion by the left-wing member of the Grünen tried, unsuccessfully, to extrapolate that final but decisive reference to the market. The realist wing held out and the introduction of the concept into the program is an important signal: carta sings and in Germany party programs still have a sort of binding function.

The second blitz has instead hit the mark and the Grünen find themselves incorporating a plan to introduce basic income. The issue will of course not be binding according to the future government program, but the leadership was aiming for softer security guarantee mechanisms linked to conditionality: a model more similar to that of Hartz IV. The two concepts are now part of the same political program and it is likely that the management will focus on the second in any future majority negotiations, but the signal remains, the left-most wing, who does not look favorably on the embrace with the conservatives, will fight.

Other traces of the sensitivity of the historical Grünen have remained, such as references to green steel or an active industrial policy (the latter already practiced in the new course of Merkel 's CDU) or an economy that focuses on the well-being of people and not the maximization of individual profits: but which party today, after the financial crises and the blows of Covid, would not support these concepts? Certainly not the CDU, especially if the succession to Merkel will take place in the wake of continuity. It is no mystery that the greens are pointing to the Ministry of Finance, in order to manage the investment plan of 500 billion in 10 years that they have in mind to transform the economy in the sense of sustainability.

That the desire to govern now pervades the party more than the taste for rebellion was evident in the speech by Winfried Kretchmann, the president of Baden-Württemberg: "We are looking for allies, it is a matter of identifying what can be achieved and not what would like, we are ready to compromise ”. His, stipulated with the big regional companies of the industry, including the automotive one, have earned him two mandates, the first carried out with the SPD, the second in progress with the CDU. The latest polls, just under a year after the vote, give no hope to a possible left or center-right alliance and leave the way open for a black-green government (Cdu-Csu at 37%, Grünen at 21%) , even if many things can and must still happen, starting from the CDU congress in mid-January. At 72 years of age, Kretschmann can now consider himself the noble father of the pragmatic season of the greens and hand over the baton to the two youngest leaders, Baerbock and Habeck. The road to the post-Merkel also passes by them.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/vi-racconto-come-i-verdi-in-germania-occhieggiano-al-mondo-industriale/ on Sun, 29 Nov 2020 07:28:47 +0000.