The Green Party leadership resigned after disappointing results in regional elections, Euractiv reported.
The party, a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government, cited the need for new faces ahead of next year’s national elections. The Greens were excluded from the assemblies of Brandenburg and Thuringia, and won just 5.1 per cent of the vote in Saxony. Party leader Omid Nouripour stated on Wednesday in Berlin:
Sunday’s election result in Brandenburg is testimony to the deepest crisis our party has faced in a decade. We have come to the conclusion: We need a fresh start.
Co-party leader Ricarda Lang added that the Greens needed new faces “to lead the party out of this crisis.” Both Nouripour and Lang were elected co-chairs in 2022 and re-elected for two years in 2023. They also undertook a visual rebranding last year that was meant to emphasise the Greens’ new identity as a moderate government party.
Franziska Brantner, Andreas Audretsch, and Felix Banaszak could be potential next leaders, according to Der Spiegel.
The new leadership will have to prepare the party for next year’s federal election by working closely with the party’s leading candidate. Robert Habeck is currently in a winning position after Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she would not lead the campaign for a second time after 2021.
