THREE DAYS to go in Germany’s general election and the main political parties are campaigning furiously on everything from the economic crisis to nuclear energy – all except the Greens.
One of their two lead campaign candidates, Jürgen Trittin, has lost his voice. The other, Renate Künast, took time out yesterday to express regret at the resignation of a long-serving former Green politician.
The 81-year-old Green veteran Barbara Rütting said she was leaving the party after watching a television programme where Künast caught a fish and killed it with three blows of a stick.
The surreal “fish affair” has heightened the feeling in Berlin that Germany’s opposition Green Party is sleepwalking towards polling day.
Though polling a solid 11 per cent, the party has been unable to find a campaign issue to boost its profile, while the weak poll showing of its former coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), has left it with few post-election options.
Another SPD-Green government is likely to need a third partner but the only candidate, the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), has ruled out that option. The Greens have ruled out two other alternatives, with the CDU or in a three-party government with the CDU and FDP.
The Green Party election manifesto promises the continuation of Germany’s nuclear energy phase-out, investment in education and a €7.50 minimum wage.
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