The Green Party is calling for a fundamental overhaul of its strategy against the Alternative for Germany (AfD). In an impulse paper reported by Spiegel, the leaders of the Greens parliamentary group, Katharina Dröge and Britta Haßelmann, argue that all previous attempts to counter the AfD have proven inadequate. They state that all democratic parties, including the Greens, bear responsibility for the strengthening of the increasingly right-wing AfD. Dröge and Haßelmann insist that no one should continue on the current path, nor should the Greens. They observe that if all parties remain entrenched in their long-held convictions, they will fail to gain any greater understanding.
The paper, which was shared with Green MPs, concludes that simply standing up for the democratic system is no longer reaching many citizens. It is argued that for a lot of people, advocacy for the preservation of democracy can now sound abstract and distant. By trying to protect democracy and the rule of law, the Greens risk being perceived by too many as defenders of the status quo-a status quo that is failing people in everyday life.
To be more effective against the AfD, the democratic parties must offer tangible, substantive solutions tailored to the needs of the people, according to the two parliamentary chairs. Their analysis points specifically to structurally weak regions, where the promises made by the right-wing populists resonate the most powerfully. Dröge and Haßelmann conclude that it is the duty of all democratic parties to counteract the impression that people feel forgotten by politics, and to ensure that this trend is reversed.
