The Green party's problem isn't its radicals...
The Green party's problem isn't its radicals...
...it's the ones who think they are states(wo)men
Dear Reader,
I want to begin with a couple of illuminating appendages to last week’s newsletter on the chaos caused by incompetent politicians thinking they have the gift of prophecy.
Back in 2019, the district of Taunus announced it was investing in “the largest fleet of hydrogen trains in the world” as it forged ahead with plans to cut carbon emissions on its rail system. The plan, estimated to have cost half a billion euros, received funding from both the federal government and the state executive in Hesse.
“Water vapour instead of diesel soot, what an exciting approach,” enthused state transport minister Tarek Al-Wazir (Greens), adding that the main advantage was that the technology “can be implemented quickly.”
Well, quickly is a relative concept.
The order of 27 trains was hit by immediate construction delays, with French manufacturer Alstom delivering just six on time. As soon as they were in operation the problems started. Within weeks, the regional press were reporting on delays and cancellations.
Now, just two years into the project, Taunus district council has said that it is considering ditching it altogether. “A large majority” of the trains are currently out of action. The technology is “clearly fundamentally unreliable,” a local councillor fumed to local newspaper FNP.
Allegedly, in their rush to buy the mightiest hydrogen fleet on the planet, the local council didn’t even bother to test the trains on their hilly countryside.
Commuters are now stuck on replacement bus services - a situation they are going to have to get used to. Local administrators want to buy some diesel locomotives but they can’t find a constructor who still builds such a dirty old technology to the required specs.
Not quite so extravagant, but perhaps more noteworthy for the sheer scale of the idiocy: In Schleswig Holstein, state funding of a €3.3 million “solar ferry” to cross a fjord on the Baltic Sea has turned into a complete debacle.
Allegedly emissions free, the ferry was supposed to replace an old diesel-powered chugger. Initial delays were blamed on “supply chain issues caused by the Ukraine war.” The actual reason was that test crossings showed that the vessel couldn’t land at wind speeds higher than 12 km/h. In other words, a light breeze was too much for this ship of the future!
Despite all evidence to the contrary, the local council still felt confident enough to sell the old boat for €17,000 in February of this year - only to buy it back in a panic a few months later for €50,000.
This week, the old diesel boat was given a new licence until 2028. “Everyone involved acted with the best of intentions,” one local administrator insisted to the local press.
The road to hell and all that…
You might not be surprised to learn that the state ministers responsible for both these planning decisions were members of the Green party.
These weren’t the fundis (fundamentalists) of Green party legend, who chuck back homoeopathic pills with their all-bran müsli to keep the evil fairies at bay. These were realos (realists), the wing of the Green party who see themselves as serious states(wo)men.
With the Greens slipping into an existential crisis after electoral wipe outs in Thuringia and Brandenburg last month, the realos are trying to purge the fundis from the party leadership.
Last week, the whole party board resigned, apparently at the insistence of Robert Habeck, vice-Chancellor and realo-in-chief. Habeck’s chief of staff at the Economy Ministry has said she will run to take over as party leader at the party conference next month; her boss wants the party to crown him as their chancellor candidate.
Never lacking in self-belief, Habeck thinks he can resurrect the Greens from national polling figures of 10 percent by putting the realists in power. What he fails to grasp is that it is the realos more than the fundis that are responsible for the party’s current, disastrous reputation with the public.
It is botched schemes like Taunus’ hydrogen trains that make voters shudder. Habeck, with his failed interventions in favour of “green heating,” “green hydrogen” or “green steel” is the personification of this hubris.
That’s the Green party’s record on the domestic front. Have they been able to shake off their image as weltfremd in foreign affairs?
This week, foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock responded to Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by declaring that the move was “in no way in the interest of Israel's security.” As is her want, she urged Jerusalem to scale back its war efforts.
This is the same minister, lest we forget, who said back in 2022 that weapons deliveries to Ukraine “save lives,” and who used discreet diplomacy to bounce Olaf Scholz into supplying Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv.
In eastern Europe, Baerbock has shown that she is no peacenik.
Why then, does she advocate the use of military force to rebuff an attack in Europe, but isn’t persuaded of its use to defeat an enemy in the Middle East? Her logic isn’t immediately clear.
Meanwhile, her opposing responses to the tactic of threatened escalation when carried out by Moscow and Tehran add to the sense that she is a minister who is blagging it.
During Iran’s first aerial assault on Israel in April all she could offer was “solidarity” while other allies offered air defence. Visiting Jerusalem shortly afterwards, she warned her hosts to avoid “tit for tat retaliation” that would plunge the region into a conflict with “completely unpredictable consequences.”
In other words, she capitulated to Iranian intimidation. Which is surprising: in Ukraine, Baerbock believes that Russian threats of escalation on an even greater scale (nuclear) are reason enough not to talk to the Kremlin.
The unvarnished reality of recent developments in the Middle East is that the death of Nasrallah, and the weakening of his battle-hardened militia, is not just good for Israel, it is good for Germany. It opens a window of opportunity that Baerbock should be taking advantage of.
Berlin has four obvious interests in the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine). They are: making the region safe for Israel, diminishing Russian influence, advancing the interests of the Syrian diaspora, and the creation of a Palestinian state.
The third on that list is a particularly German interest: five percent of the entire Syrian population now lives in this country. At the very latest, the first generation of German-born Syrians will form a vocal lobby for democratic change in their homeland. It is always in Berlin’s interests to look for opportunities to change the power dynamic away from the brutal Assad dictatorship that forced these people to flee.
Israeli attacks on Iranian militias in Lebanon and Syria are weakening Moscow’s and Tehran’s grip on Syria. By implication, the dictator they prop up in Damascus is being weakened too.
Germany should be using its unique position to build bridges between Israel and Syrian opposition groups.
The Syrian diaspora may deplore Israel’s assault on Gaza, but they will have secretly applauded the killing of Nasrallah, whose intervention in their civil war turned the tide against the revolution a decade ago, just as they secretly applaud every time Israeli warplanes strike Iranian militias in their country.
Baerbock should have a laser-like focus on furthering the goal of a democratic Syria that is friendly with Israel. Instead she is wasting her time on empty phrases about “cycles of violence” and “contagion.”
Regarding ferries: Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa commissioned by the (now collapsed) SNP / Green coalition in Scotland, the ships were designed to run on both traditional marine gas oil and LNG, which is much greener, and are the first in the UK to be built with a dual-fuel system. When they will finally run £350m over budget and over six years late, they’ll be fuelled by - diesel.
I don't know how gullible the Greens have been in the hydrogen fiasco, however, I suspect there are more than just them who bought this tech to the table as a working proposition. The question is: Where is the money? Who is going to be held responsible? Queue a good old British (german equivalent) of a Government enquiry to kick that one into the long grass.
Germany is a major military contributor to Ukraine AND to Israel. The logic that she is hard on one and soft on the other just doesn't stand up. Many countries inc Israeli sponsor the US, has been urging restraint and the avoidance of escalation on Netanyahu for weeks if not months, the notion that Baerbock caved to Iranian intimidation is frankly, laughable.
Israel has undoubtedly scored significant tactical advantage over Hezbollah particularly. However, that will likely be a short term gain for a strategic long term loss as Hezbollah and Hamas recover. They are not going away. Any pipedream Germany might have about building bridges with some Arab nations, secretly cheering on Israel, somehow benefitting Germany or other Western Nations for that matter, will be swamped by US interests in the Region. When that happens and the US tells it allies to 'jump' Germany like the rest of the weak, ineffectual western governments will ask 'how-high.' None of it will end well.