A political life's work is in danger of failing: In Hesse, Tarek Al-Wazir is fighting the trend

Daily Mirror A political life's work is in danger of failing: In Hesse, Tarek Al-Wazir is fighting the trend Article by Felix Hackenbruch • 1 H. He has been rooted in state politics for decades and is considered Hesse's most popular politician. But in the state elections, Tarek Al-Wazir thwarted his own party's plans. The poster has slipped, as have the polls for Tarek Al-Wazir's Greens. Tarek Al-Wazir already knows what awaits him. “Someone is about to come and salinize the Werra,” says Al-Wazir, taking a sip of sparkling water. Wearing a light blue shirt, suit trousers and dark leather shoes, he stands on the lush meadow in Witzenhausen and looks at the Werra, which flows leisurely by. A few ducks are floating on it. The Green politician in an idyll. “It's a sewer,” an older woman said a few minutes later, outraged about the state of the river. Every year a potash company upstream in Thuringia is allowed to discharge salt wastewater into the river. circus Tarek Al-Wazir on the behavior of the traffic light government. Chloride, magnesium, potash, brine - everything is fed into the Werra. “And the Greens constantly agree to the exemptions,” says the resident. In fact, just last December, the permit was extended until the end of 2027. Al-Wazir is sweating on stage, but that's due to the humid late summer weather here in northern Hesse. The content is prepared. “Lye has been sunk into the ground in mines for more than 100 years,” he explains. He then explains that the lye dumping has been stopped and the limits for salt discharges have been lowered. In view of the many well-paid jobs in mining, a sense of proportion is important in the structurally weak region. Al-Wazir explains all the details for several minutes: “We are in the process of improving the situation step by step.” Step by step and with a sense of proportion, this is how Tarek Al-Wazir understands his political style. It took him far. The son of a German teacher and a Yemeni diplomat has dedicated his life to Hessian state politics. The Greens govern quietly with the CDU Chairman of the Green Youth in Hesse, city councilor in his hometown Offenbach. From 1994, member of the state parliament, later state chairman, then parliamentary group leader for years. He has been responsible for his federal state since 2014. With Volker Bouffier (CDU), he managed to forge a black-green alliance that was hardly thought possible, which also governs quietly under Bouffier's successor Boris Rhein. Al-Wazir, whose last name means minister, is not only deputy prime minister but also minister of economy, transport, housing and energy. But he is in danger of being denied the last and decisive career step. “A life’s political work is about to come to an end,” says a Green man who has known him for a long time. Al-Wazir was long considered the most popular politician in Hesse. At the party headquarters in Berlin, people were already speculating, confident of victory, that they would be able to appoint a second Prime Minister in Baden-Württemberg after Winfried Kretschmann. Related video: CDU remains the strongest force in Hesse - the left has to worry (glomex) Even the AfD could overtake the Greens When he was nominated as the top candidate, his party friends gave him green sneakers for the swearing-in as state father - a reminiscence of Joschka Fischer, who was sworn in as the first Green minister in this same Hesse state parliament in 1982. But his vegan sneakers will probably have to wait to be used. In surveys, the Greens are far behind the CDU in second or third place, and even the AfD could overtake Al-Wazir's party. It would be a total fiasco. Hourly bus services to every village On the Werra meadow in Witzleben, where around 50 listeners came to the organic café in a trailer on this humid midday, Al-Wazir pushes the bad numbers away. “Where was Olaf Scholz three weeks before the federal election?” he recalls the SPD’s surprising election victory. CDU candidate Armin Laschet has already been working on his cabinet list, he jokes. Instead, he reels off his program: 10,000 new apartments, 20,000 new daycare places, six billion euros for a state-owned climate and transformation fund for small companies, hourly bus connections to every village. Later there will be a new bridge, poor cycle paths and a bypass. There is no topic that can surprise Al-Wazir. It's been in the fabric for decades. “There is still a lot to do,” he says at the end. More and more people are turning away from climate protection But they are slogans for perseverance, Al-Wazir also knows that. He has long been eyeing second place, which he would like to achieve as clearly as possible ahead of Nancy Faeser's SPD.