The Green grassroots movement is facing potential defeat in a legal battle regarding the largest party reform in years, according to documents cited by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. In a letter to the participating parties, the Berlin Regional Court expressed significant concerns about an injunction requested by the grassroots, suggesting they withdraw the application quickly.
More than 130 members of the Green Party had challenged the reform last week by taking the party leadership to court. While a final decision has not yet been issued-allowing both sides to introduce further arguments-it is currently considered highly likely that the controversial vote will proceed as planned.
The Green Party’s approximately 180,000 members are scheduled to vote on the referendum starting June 9th. The court stated it finds no grounds at this time to prevent the vote with an urgent ruling. Nevertheless, the option of taking further action later remains. The court indicated that it is unclear why the critics might not challenge the vote’s outcome if it occurs. The results of the referendum are expected in early July.
However, the conflict surrounding the party reform is escalating. Representatives of the 130 grassroots and founding members indicated they do not plan to back down. The applicants argue that there is a risk of irreversible damage, which necessitated preventative legal protection. They contend that seeking legal recourse afterward would be too late, as by announcing the July referendum results, elections and organizational decisions could be made based on a potentially unlawful statute. Furthermore, they argue that allocating funds and assigning roles would alter the balance of power, and a later court ruling overturning the statute changes would likely not fully reverse the resulting organizational chaos.
Specifically, the party leadership seeks to raise the minimum required quorums for submitting grassroots proposals, aiming to reduce the often very high number of such proposals presented at party conferences. This measure is intended to allow the leadership to make complex and lengthy decisions more rapidly and conduct party conferences more strictly. Conversely, the grassroots Greens complain that this constitutes a massive loss of grassroots democracy. Should they lose the immediate legal challenge, they intend to challenge the reform’s potential passage following the referendum.
