Green party leaders see complicity in the rise of the AfD

All democratic parties, including the Greens, bear responsibility for the strengthening of the AfD, which is partly right-wing extremist. “Nobody should just carry on as before – not even us Alliance Greens,” write Dröge and Haßelmann. "If everyone sticks to the beliefs that they have always thought were right, we will not become any wiser."

The two leading Greens come to the conclusion that advocating for the democratic system will no longer reach many citizens. “We have to realize that our campaign to save democracy now only sounds abstract and far away for many,” says the five-page paper that was sent to the Green MPs. "In the desire to protect democracy and the rule of law, we seem to too many like defenders of the status quo, a status quo that no longer works well for people in everyday life," write the two Green women.

The authors see a central reason for many people's weakened faith in the Federal Republic's political system in the inadequate processing of the corona pandemic. A lot of lives have been saved by the pandemic policy. »But there is no doubt that mistakes were made. (...) If the German Bundestag had been seriously prepared to deal with what went well and what went badly, that would have been a confident sign. And it could also have been a moment of social unity after an extremely polarized time.

In order to score better against the AfD, the democratic parties must offer tangible solutions for the people, demand the two group leaders. According to the analysis, it is the structurally weak regions in which the promises of the right-wing populists are heard the most, according to the analysis. »Regions where people feel forgotten by politics. It is the task of all democratic parties to counter this impression and ensure that it changes.

The Greens offer the coalition to work together on common solutions. “We Greens in the Bundestag are ready to approach the government to prepare our country and its social systems for the future,” says the paper. The Greens had approved the special fund to ensure investments in infrastructure, security and climate protection. »There are issues that outlast the logic of election periods. They are so crucial for our future that the government and the opposition should work together on solutions. The offer is there, we want to continue on this path.«

In addition to the content, other communication is also necessary. Right-wing extremists often work with strong negative emotions such as anger or fear in their campaigns, the paper says. "In the past, we have too often responded to such disputes with factual arguments." We need to focus more on messages that are associated with positive emotions.