Quite a few Realos would like to see Boris Palmer back with the Greens immediately. But among the left in the party, enthusiasm is limited. They warn against hasty steps.
Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – The left wing of the Greens in Baden-Württemberg is opposed to a rapid approach by the party to the recently re-elected mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer. “The election result doesn’t change anything for us,” said Aya Krkoutli, spokeswoman for the Green Youth, of the German Press Agency in Stuttgart. “From our point of view, Palmer has no place in the party and we fundamentally reject a rapprochement.” Palmer ran as an independent candidate in the mayoral election because his membership in the Greens was suspended until the end of 2023 due to disputes about breaches of taboos and allegations of racism.
Krkoutli, who also sits on the Greens state executive, thinks Palmer is racist. “He has repeatedly worked against the basic values ??of the Greens.” No apology can be expected from him for his statements. “We as Green Youth have not forgiven anything.” She demanded that the party leadership in the Southwest hold the planned talks with Palmer next year “regardless of the election victory”. Even the Stuttgart MEP Michael Bloss doesn’t think much of rolling out the red carpet for the controversial local politician after the election victory. “We absolutely have to comply with the process as specified by the arbitral tribunal,” said the state board member of the dpa. “As Greens, we stand for a welcoming culture and against racism.”
After Palmer’s election victory, several politicians from the Realo wing spoke out in favor of a rapprochement between him and the party – such as Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann and Finance Minister Danyal Bayaz. Bloss, on the other hand, said: The exclusion procedure against Palmer was decided by the Greens in May 2021 “because breaking the taboo was made a method to generate attention”.
The climate policy spokesman for the Greens in the European Parliament warned: “If Boris Palmer’s re-election is read as a confirmation of this method, then nothing will happen with him and the Green Party in the future either.” Bloss was convinced: “Green mayors can also be successful without breaking a taboo. We’ll show that in Hanover, Bonn, Göppingen and soon in Heidelberg.” In Heidelberg, ex-Science Minister Theresia Bauer is standing for the Greens.
Last Sunday, Palmer was elected mayor in the university town for a further eight years. He has been the head of the town hall in Tübingen for 16 years. Green party leader Lena Schwelling wants to hold talks with Palmer at the beginning of next year. The overdue conversation about how Palmer could express controversial opinions without violating the principles and order of the party will be held at the beginning of next year, she told the “Spiegel”. A concrete schedule is being worked out in the responsible committees, added a spokeswoman for the state party.
Schwelling and her co-chairman Pascal Haggenmüller had previously stated that the settlement concluded in April set a clear path “to work together again in the future in orderly internal party procedures: Boris Palmer’s membership will be suspended until the end of 2023, while the communication channels will remain open”. One feels obliged to this and will conduct the talks with “great seriousness”.
Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) campaigned in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (Saturday) for a reintegration of the mayor, but Palmer also had to comply with rules. Palmer is an “excellent local politician” and can open up “important groups of voters” for the eco-party. Whether the mayor will find his place again depends primarily on himself and his style of debate: “More Kretschmann, less hooliganism when discussing,” Özdemir recommended. “Because his unacceptable linguistic gaffes also belong to the truth. That just doesn’t work.”
But the Turkish-born minister also said: “We absolutely have to have critical debates in our party, for example about migration or identity politics. Only the debates that Boris has instigated in recent years are no longer about these important issues, but about them it was all about the egocentric from Tübingen.”
Palmer said earlier this week that he would be more vigilant about his Facebook posts as the re-elected mayor. “I have set myself a learning field, namely to formulate it in such a way that I cannot be misunderstood so often,” he told the “Südkurier”. This is often difficult. His resolution is: “Less arguing about things I didn’t mean. More arguing about the necessary issues.”
