There is movement in the reformation of the Greens at the federal level. The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Franziska Brantner, and her parliamentary group colleague Felix Banaszak announced their candidacy for party leadership via Instagram on Friday. Green Bundestag member Andreas Audretsch announced on Platform to give our party a new start.” For that she “really respects” them. “Commitment and confidence” guided them so that the Greens could “bring this country and Europe together and forward,” Brantner continued. The party could be “the democratic place where people who believe in our country and Europe gather.” Banaszak explained his candidacy on Instagram: “Sometimes you have to go all in. Today is such a moment.” The country needs “a political force that believes in solidarity and justice”. Audretsch wrote: “One more year until the federal election. We’re starting something new.” It’s about a lot and about Greens who want to inspire people about climate protection and justice, he added. And: “In addition to my work in the Bundestag, I want to contribute something.” After the announced withdrawal of the entire Greens federal executive board with the previous dual leadership Lang and Nouripour, the names of Banaszak, Audretsch and Brantner were mentioned again and again. The woman and Reala Brantner seemed to already be seated. The two men Banaszak and Audretsch from the party left should have competed for the other post. Now Audretsch is apparently not running – which doesn’t mean that there couldn’t be other applicants. The Greens have many rules that are foreign to other parties. The six-member Federal Executive Board may include a maximum of two members of the Bundestag. In addition, at least one woman must be the chairperson. And there is another important paragraph: It states that members of the Federal Executive Board are not allowed to be parliamentary group leaders, neither in Berlin, Brussels nor in the states, nor members of a government. However, it also states that there is a transition period of eight months to resign from this office if you are elected to the federal executive board. Robert Habeck has already left his mark on the statutes – he stipulated the transition period in 2018 when he became federal chairman while still a Kiel minister. Has good chances as a woman and Reala: Franziska BrantnerReutersThe paragraph could also be important for Brantner, who is not only considered a close confidante of Habeck, but is also currently Parliamentary State Secretary in his Ministry of Economics. But this time seemed to be coming to an end soon anyway – Habeck wanted to install her as manager for his election campaign. The fact that this plan could not work without tensions with the party headquarters is described in Berlin as one of many pieces of the puzzle to understand the whole picture surrounding the withdrawal of the party leadership. Now Brantner, who is considered extremely self-confident and ambitious, could possibly lead Habeck’s election campaign not alongside or even under Nouripour and Lang – but directly from the party leadership. Franziska Brantner has long been Robert Habeck’s most important confidant and also his most important state secretary. She would lead the federal party as a close advisor and ally of the presumed top candidate. The 45-year-old politician, who was born in Lörrach and grew up in Neuenburg am Rhein, has a biography that the realpolitik Greens would like, which they consider to be ideal: studied at Sciences Po in Paris and Columbia University in New York, doctorate, broad international and European experience, at the same time grounded by her home in southern Baden. Her great ambition and commitment were already noticed by her classmates at the German-French high school in Freiburg. She learned how to negotiate hard. In 2021, the daughter of a lawyer who is also involved with the Greens, was already considering applying to be co-federal chairwoman. Things then turned out differently: Brantner became Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Change in Berlin. In 2021, she led the green regional association as the top candidate in the federal election. She won the candidacy against the party leftist Agnieszka Brugger and received a clear majority (63.9 percent) of the delegates behind her. For the first time in autumn 2021, she directly won the Heidelberg federal constituency with 30.2 percent. In the ministry, after the turn of the century, Habeck commissioned his state secretary to realign trade policy in order to free Germany from dependence on dictatorial regimes such as China and Russia for the supply of raw materials . She recently played a leading role in the negotiations for the raw materials agreement with Serbia to secure lithium supplies. More on the topic As a member of the European Parliament, she learned how to negotiate hard as a member of the budget committee from 2009 to 2013 during the EU’s sovereign debt crisis. Early on, she was one of the Greens who criticized the German-Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as geopolitically problematic and ecologically harmful. In 2022, she played a decisive role in breaking the blockade in the negotiations on the Ceta free trade agreement so that the German ratification law could be signed. However, the party did not follow her lead on the agreement with the Mercosur states at the party conference in Karlsruhe last year. Since the crisis in the Greens loomed over the traffic light dispute, Brantner’s influence within the party, who was already one of the Realo’s coordinators, also increased -Wing belongs. In the federal election campaign, the Greens hope that Brantner, with her great knowledge and her ability to draw broad political lines, could support Habeck where he has weaknesses. Brantner saw the difficulties with the “Building Energy Act” (GEG) early on and warned them again and again. But at the beginning of 2022, her party was so inspired by the idea that her interventions were simply not taken seriously as “concerns from stuffy Baden-Württemberg”. Considered a talent: Felix Banaszakdpa If Brantner actually prevails, there will still be a position left for a leftist in the federal leadership. This is not stipulated in the statutes, but apart from the (successful) exception of Habeck/Annalena Baerbock, it is part of the general expectation. One such leftist could be Felix Banaszak, who, like Brantner, announced his candidacy on Friday. The 34-year-old from Duisburg has only been in the Bundestag since this legislative period, but is already considered one of the parliamentary group’s great talents. Not only because at the end of last year he effectively and rhymedly rejected an AfD proposal late in the evening in plenary session with one of the shortest speeches: “Who burdens the Bundestag so late? / It’s the faction that no one likes. / She makes a proposal that you cannot escape. / We reject him – yes, what else? Banaszak, who sits on the Budget and Economic Committee, had already had a distinguished career before his time in Berlin. This could also be important for the future. The cultural anthropologist was not only at the head of the Green Youth, but also led the NRW state association quite successfully for four years together with Mona Neubaur – a close confidante of Habeck. Budget and finance expert: Andreas AudretschdpaThe 40-year-old Andreas Audretsch, on the other hand, has not yet led his Berlin state association, but was on the state board until his election to the Bundestag in 2021. He studied politics and worked as a radio journalist for several years. He was immediately promoted to deputy chairman of the parliamentary group and would then have to vacate this position. Just like Banaszak, Audretsch is a representative of the left wing who is not only rhetorically strong, but above all has delved deeply into subject areas in which the Greens have so far been given little competence: budget and finance. But whoever at the federal party conference in the middle November in Wiesbaden will be elected to the top of the party – the center of power of the Greens will likely continue to be the former chairmen: Baerbock and Habeck. As the designated candidate for chancellor, Habeck would like an honest and open debate about his ambitions. And a secret vote to approve his position. If it succeeds. Politics, he said on television on Wednesday evening about the withdrawal of the previous party leadership, is a “merciless business”.
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