The Greens must not forget the dream world of their members

Pragmatism instead of principles, that's how you could describe what the Greens are celebrating at their party conference. Ever since the party took over government responsibility for the first time in 1985, in a world that seems very distant but whose lines of conflict are very contemporary, there has always been a lot of talk about the toads that the Greens have to swallow.

In the meantime, they are frying the beasts themselves: Hardly any other party is so vehemently demanding arms deliveries to Ukraine. The postponement of the phase-out of nuclear energy has been decided - anyone who thinks that we are actually only talking about the winter months is naïve. Saudi Arabia becomes an arms partner.

That is pragmatic in a multiple crisis-ridden world. But it also adheres closely to the principles that are more necessary today than in the carefree years after the fall of the Wall to preserve freedom and democracy. On a global level and also in Germany: the anti-freedom forces on the right and left are just waiting for blackouts and further increasing costs to stage their hatred of the state as a people's movement. On the other hand, there are the Greens, who have become a state party.

pragmatism and principles, then; a clear line at the party congress. The polls confirmed the lead. The last major moult of a German party heralded its biggest and lasting crisis: That was when Schröder and Müntefering transformed the comfortable provider state into a "promotion and challenge". The howling about it in the base was so long and loud that the SPD, hardly in power, is setting the course back to self-service.

We'll see how the Greens do it. As peaceful as the party conference was, Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock shouldn’t forget their members stuck in a dream world: not the moms of cargo bikes from the suburbs, but the neighborhood Indians, the reality-denying wool-sock pacifists and the extreme left-wing party youth.

"7 Days, 7 Nights" is the political weekly with Frédéric Schwilden. Every Friday he welcomes a political guest to a slightly different weekly review. Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music or via RSS feed, among others.