Boris Palmer: If you want… I’m surprised that a lot of people in Tübingen are doing that today. They seem to somehow connect me with the outcome.

Are you currently connecting with the Greens, which you left in 2023 after a long dispute, or are you connecting with Cem Özdemir, who sees the Greens in the state more like a sister party to the federal Greens?

Palmer: Success in the election is very important the success of Cem Özdemir personally with his biography, which really impressed me, and with his clear political positioning in the middle. In terms of content, I can actually always agree with what he says. Also on migration issues. That’s been the case for the last few years, and it’s still the case now.

Since the end of the traffic light coalition, there has been a twilight of the Green Party in Germany. Özdemir was successful because he distanced himself from the federal party. Reason for the Greens in the federal government to also change course significantly?

Palmer: I’m the wrong person to apply for, I’m not a member of this party. But I’m a Green at heart, I’m an ecologist, and that’s why I was very concerned that ecological thought and the party that supports it have fallen into such disrepute in Germany.

And it worried me even more that this threatened to degenerate into left-wing sectarianism if Baden-Württemberg had been lost as an anchor of reality. And now I’m just happy that in Cem Özdemir we have someone who represents political ecology the way it should be, namely not as a contrast to the economy, but as a shared task.

Is it possible that the Greens in the federal government are still a long way from realizing this?

Palmer: I repeat: I do not speak for the Greens in the federal government. It is important to me that we make humanity’s task of climate protection a success, and I know that this is only possible if we are also economically successful. You can call for a program to impoverish society, and some people do, but then you won’t get elected and nobody will take part.

Ecology not as a contradiction, but in community with the economy – does that fit perfectly with the conservative Christian Democrats?

Palmer: No, unfortunately the CDU has not yet managed to become a conservative force for ecology, but rather believes that ecology must be fought. That is why the Christian Democrats in the federal government are currently trying to reverse what Robert Habeck really achieved, namely the massive increase in renewable energy.

For example, this policy also destroys investments and advance payments that our municipal utilities have already provided if district heating is suddenly no longer available for sale or solar and wind farm projects have to be canceled.

Cem Özdemir is expected to be the next prime minister. Has he already invited you to join the cabinet?

Palmer: He didn’t do that. And I didn’t ask him either.

If he invited you, would you…?

Palmer: I could answer hypothetical questions, but I don’t want to.

Actually, the Green Youth has already answered this question, calling for stronger social policy in a six-point paper – and that you are not allowed into the cabinet.

Palmer: Firstly, this paper has nothing to do with state politics. There are calls for more redistribution and tightening of migration policy is rejected. Secondly, what is essentially being demanded is that Cem Özdemir pursue a policy that completely contradicts everything he said in the election campaign – that he practically says: “I lied in the election campaign”.

And thirdly, the paper does not know the state constitution, according to which only the Prime Minister decides who to bring into the cabinet, and not a party committee or state parliament. But what I think is worst is that they claim that Cem Özdemir doesn’t do green politics.

Green Youth activists wanted to stop you from taking part in the election party in Stuttgart on Sunday evening?

Palmer: Yes, they tried to push me away. I should stay away from the party, I wasn’t invited. But my colleague Ryyan Alshebl, the first Syrian Green mayor from the municipality of Ostelsheim, helped me and I stayed. It had nothing to do with my idea of ​​tolerance and diversity.

Review: When it came to your exclusion from the Green Party, which you then forestalled by leaving, Özdemir didn’t always speak very kindly about you. Palmer is blowing up bridges, ruining debates and damaging the cause. Now we experience you both in the best harmony. Was there ever a clarifying conversation?

Palmer: There was no clarifying conversation, that wasn’t necessary, we’ve known each other for almost 30 years now, and friends sometimes share their opinions. I actually appreciate that. He said I was an excellent mayor, but that I was a quarter lunatic on Facebook and that I should ask him before I posted crap.

Then in the future will you ask him before posting anything on Facebook?

Palmer: The fact that I’m going to start asking others what I’m allowed to say and where, that’s not going to happen. But I now have sensitive texts checked by the AI.

The CDU has proposed rotating the office of prime minister because of the almost equal number of votes: the first half for Özdemir, the second for Hagel. Worth considering?

Palmer: I was very amazed when I heard that for the first time. Then I remembered that something like this once existed in Israel, but as far as I know, never in Germany. Özdemir has clearly rejected this and that is the end of the matter.

The CDU is convinced that it was not Bundestag member Zoe Meyer alone who published the eight-year-old interview with Hagel’s statements about the high school student with fawn eyes during the hot election campaign phase, but that this was coordinated with the election campaigners in Stuttgart.

Palmer: I totally understand the CDU, they can’t even imagine something like that, they don’t have representatives who do such individual actions a few days before the election and then say: “Oh, there was a state election?! I have nothing to do with that.” But I was a member of the Green Party for 27 years, and I know that there are representatives there with ethical self-confidence who just do it and don’t ask anyone. And I know it was the same this time too.

You say yourself that you can’t imagine that in the CDU.

Palmer: Yes, that is why it will now be necessary to talk to the CDU to build trust and convince them that Cem Özdemir has not spun an intrigue against Manuel Hagel and that it is therefore not appropriate to enter into the talks with mistrust.

Given the close election result, this video may have been the deciding factor in the Greens’ victory.

Palmer: I think this is a completely unproven claim. No, the video also mobilized the other side very strongly. I met more people who said it was a mess than people who said that’s why I’m voting for Özdemir now.

If pollsters can provide figures on this, it could be discussed. At the moment it is completely unclear whose account the video contributed more to. In any case, it caused distrust. It’s a good thing that Cem Özdemir is a good bridge builder…

…and the CDU can be convinced?

Palmer: Yes, you will be able to talk to the CDU because they also know that Baden-Württemberg is in danger of becoming a model country into the Ruhr area and Stuttgart into the new Detroit. That’s why we simply can’t afford to argue for five years.

We urgently need radical reforms of the social security systems, of the bureaucracy, of education – otherwise Baden-Württemberg will lose out in international competition, and I don’t want to imagine what that means politically. The holes in the municipal coffers are already dramatic.

The economic problems you describe, including the holes in local budgets, can only be solved if a different policy is adopted at the federal level. Are you optimistic about Black-Red politics?

Palmer: I’m disappointed at how little has been achieved so far; I would have expected much more, especially after Friedrich Merz’s announcements. But I’m not giving up and it’s clear to me that a strong federal state like Baden-Württemberg plays a crucial role in determining whether we can get the economy up and running again.

The fact that Merz’s announcements were not implemented is the fault of the Chancellor or is the SPD blocking it as a coalition partner?

Palmer: I’m far away in the Tübingen town hall. But the people who work hard for little money tell me that the SPD no longer represents them, but is only there for those who never paid in and did nothing. Workers in Baden-Württemberg voted nine times more for the AfD than for the SPD. That has to make you think.

How should the future coalition deal with the strongest opposition party, the AfD: isolate? Or could a green-black coalition take up a proposal from the AfD if it is constructive and talk to them?

Palmer: From 2001 to 2007, I was strictly excluded as a member of the state parliament at all times, because of course the government never approved or implemented any of my suggestions as an opposition member. That’s not how our parliamentarism works. The opposition has to live with the fact that all of its proposals will be rejected.

But when it comes to speaking, Cem Özdemir said it very clearly: He wants to go where the AfD has strong results and can talk to people. Talking to each other and persuading people with arguments – there is no alternative in a democracy.

Palmer: In any case. And things don’t seem to be going so badly in Tübingen. Of the 1,101 municipalities in Baden-Württemberg, the AfD achieved its second worst result with 5.8 percent. And as you know, I’ve always said that you have to talk to them and do that even in the face of resistance.

This article was created in collaboration with The European .