If you’re a business owner in Germany, don’t be ashamed to show up as an environmentalist. In contrast, former “muesli eaters” are now entrusted with all businesses.
Favored by the German electoral system, which planned them very early in positions of responsibility in the regions, ecologists have accumulated experience and are now ruling over the state. “They learned in the regions to make laws but also compromised,” explains Frank Baasner, director of the Franco-German Institute in Ludwigsburg. “It’s all the difference between French ecologists who have remained all these years blocked by opposition banks”, he added.
A government ecology
The Ministry of Economy and Climate, in the hands of ecologists, has become Berlin’s most prominent address, headed by Robert Habeck, the vice-chancellor but also the weight of the Scholz government. The conservative opposition and the big bosses of the industry are full of praise for this ecologist’s energy policy from civil society. “In the past, companies did not need a minister because he was not involved in economic life. Now, they need him very carefully to finance and legislate the transition”, Frank Baasner pointed out.
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In the strength of their experience, the German Greens no longer look like a brake but a stimulator. The Lufthansa boss did not miss an opportunity to praise their pragmatism. “Our demands are almost 100% on their program,” said Carsten Spohr, president of the German airline, during the 2021 election campaign. “In the end, we are very close to each other in terms of policy. nature ”, he observed.
Responsible partners
Former Siemens boss Joe Kaeser, who left in March 2021, presented the Greens as a growth force. She publicly supported the candidacy of Annalena Baerbock, the head of the environmental list, praising her “credibility”. “His pragmatism is important. He always keeps the ecological aspects in mind. But he knows that we are an industrial country. He understands that Germany’s foreign policy is also economic,” he told the newspaper. Suddeutsche Zeitung.
Young and fluent, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is part of this new generation of pragmatic environmentalists who are better trained than ever before. Joschka Fischer, the son of a pig slaughterer without a diploma, boasted that he was a taxi driver and used counter expressions in the Assembly gallery. Annalena Baerbock declares herself valuable and allegedly reflects her bourgeois background and her study of international law in London.
Ecology and economics go together
In Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann also showed that ecology is not the enemy of the economy. The former Maoist, who was accused forty years ago of the right to “return to live in the trees”, is now one of the most respected economic politicians.
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He achieved the success of winning a third term in 2021 as minister-president of the Earth, the cradle of the German car. He now defends the founders as did the Conservatives before him. But this partnership with the business community has not stopped him from pursuing an environmental policy. The large energy group EnBW, of which the region is a reference shareholder, became one of the greenest producers of electricity in Germany when it was one of the strongest on coal.
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