Boris Palmer on the Green Youth: The "hostile takeover" of the party is now over

Berliner Zeitung Boris Palmer on the Green Youth: The "hostile takeover" of the party is now over Article by Len Sander • 2 hours • 2 minutes reading time Tübingen's mayor and ex-Green Boris Palmer is pleased about the withdrawal of the Green Youth board. After the resignation of the Green Youth board, his resignation from the party and his announcement that he would found a new organization, ex-Green Boris Palmer has now also spoken out. The now non-partisan Tübingen mayor, who was a member of the Greens from 1996 until his resignation in 2023, expressed his delight at the announced withdrawal in a post on Facebook on Thursday morning. The 52-year-old, who caused controversy with his statements even while he was a member of the Greens, for example with his positions on migration or identity politics, writes that he considers the move by the Green Youth Federal Executive Board to be "a historically correct step that gives me great hope for the Greens". The Greens have experienced a "hostile takeover from within" in recent years. He goes on to write: "Many original Greens have been marginalized or, as in my case, subjected to exclusion campaigns. On the surface, this was about individual allegedly racist statements", and is probably referring to his own history in the party. The forces, which he probably also includes the now resigned Federal Executive Board of the Green Youth, have tried to turn the Greens into a left-wing party "- which they were not historically and for which there is no need". Palmer believes that the class-fighting rhetoric in the Green Youth Executive Board's letter of resignation is out of date. "The climate issue is urgent. It will not tolerate any delay in the class struggle," writes the politician. The Greens can now free themselves of "ideological ballast" and concentrate on the pressing tasks of the moment. Palmer concludes on a hopeful note: "They are smart people, in 20 years most of them will realize their mistakes."