It is a little embarrassing how the Federal Greens are trying to declare Cem Özdemir’s victory in the Baden-Württemberg state elections as a victory for Alliance 90/The Greens. Federal Chairwoman Franziska Brantner did this many times in the hours after the election victory and now the second part of the leadership team, Felix Banaszak, did this on “Hard but Fair”.

“Cem Özdemir did this with a special course, but he also did it for the Greens,” explains Banaszak. The Duisburg native is convinced that party colleague Özdemir will promote green issues, but without putting pressure on citizens with an ideological finger. He calls it at eye level – so not as confrontational as usual?

If you want to win, you have to deny the Greens

It wasn’t long ago that Banaszak called for a more radical climate policy and persuaded citizens to abstain, which earned him the accusation of misunderstanding the reality of people’s lives. Now the Greens are of the opinion that Özedimir’s election victory is the perfect signal for a good super election year in 2026 for the Greens. But basically he shows the opposite: Anyone who wants to win elections as a Green must not campaign with Green issues and must deny the party.

The fact is that the Brantner/Banaszak duo urgently needs success. This is also why they gritted their teeth in distant Berlin, while the election campaigner in Baden-Württemberg tried to put as much space as possible between himself and his party. The BaWü election was a personal election, and ideologized issues from the state capital could only do harm.

Green federal policy brand “Green Deal” and open-hearted migration policy had the potential to jeopardize the election victory. “Nobody claimed that I and Özdemir had 80 similarities on 80 questions,” explains Federal Chairman Banaszak about possible differences with the election winner.

CDU man Voigt: Cem Özdemir does Union politics

In fact, Cem Özdemir has a little more green federal politics in his blood than the country’s previous prime minister. Winfried Kretschmann held the office for 15 years and created his own biotope in Stuttgart. He was Team Kretschmann and actually his own party within the party.

Özdemir has now followed the trail of the ancestor. This is also why he declared the Greens to be the “sister party” during the election campaign. He cycles and is a vegetarian. But he won’t move forward, which is further damaging a state with a struggling automotive industry. Mario Voigt, CDU and Prime Minister of Thuringia, even claimed that Özdemir “made the CDU’s policies.” He says: “Actually, the CDU got 60 percent.”

Joining forces with Boris Palmer

Cem Özdemir left out little to clearly differentiate himself from the Greens from Berlin. So he invited Boris Palmer to his election campaign events. Palmer has not been a member of the Green Party since 2023. This was preceded by a long-standing rift and a process of expulsion from the party, which he had anticipated. Nevertheless, he was re-elected as an independent candidate in his election as mayor of Tübingen in 2022 in the first round with 52.4 percent of the vote.

Felix Banaszak says on “Hard but Fair”: “I will not deal with Boris Palmer. There are good reasons why he is no longer a member of us.” Özdemir also had good reasons to show up with Palmer. Their common motto: I am my own party, I have nothing in common with those Greens who sit at their ideological desk in Berlin.

So now the Berlin Federal Greens hope that Özdemir will tackle green issues in Baden-Württemberg like a kind of Trojan horse. With his style of conversation, which embraces everyone, he should break the blockade against, for example, green climate policy. “Because someone has to stay the course,” says Federal Chairman Banaszak. “We have our eyes on the future.”