In the wake of yesterday’s announcement by Germany’s Green party leaders Omid Nouripour and Ricarda Lang that they would step down at the November party convention, Green Youth leaders Svenja Appuhn and Katharina Stolla, and the entire ten-member executive committee have resigned from their positions as well, and have even left the party. Their decision will become effective at the Oct. 18 convention of the Green Youth in Leipzig. Not all of the 16,000 party youth are expected to exit the party.
“We made the decision to leave the party in recent weeks, i.e. before the party executive announced its resignation,” reads the letter from Sept. 25 evening that Appuhn and Stolla sent to the party executive. “However, we did not consider it responsible to announce our decision during the state election campaigns, as we were concerned that it would have overshadowed the already difficult election campaigns.”
“Recent weeks” apparently refers to extended, brawling conflicts between party leaders and the youth organization, which thinks that climate protection will be intensified through extra funds coming from taxing the rich. The youth also reject any conditions on Germany letting in refugees. It is interesting to note that, although the youth oppose the €100 billion extra funding for militarization, which they prefer to spend on the climate instead, they have so far not declared opposition to the Ukraine war funding.
