Greens after election in Saxony-Anhalt: Green remains hope

There was more confetti on election night. With 8.9 percent, the Greens in Magdeburg celebrated their best result in Saxony-Anhalt. On Monday afternoon, the joy in the Berlin party headquarters was gone. The fear of an AfD-led government is too great.

“For me, even though we achieved such a fantastic result as Alliance 90/The Greens, this is not a day to be happy about,” says top candidate Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz. She traveled to Berlin for the meeting of the Federal Executive Board and is now in front of the cameras at the press conference. It would be “bitter” to potentially disappoint the hopes of all the people who voted for their party in order to prevent a right-wing extremist government. Tactically voting for the Greens in order to prevent an AfD majority: This calculation actually didn't quite work out.

But, Sziborra-Seidlitz continues, she is not yet completely giving up hope. The state executive board and the other democratic parties will discuss “whether there is still some way to prevent the right-wing extremist sole government.” There are definitely ideas. Which? "Please don't force me to do this today. We will comment on this in the next few days."

Instead of going into detail, Sziborra-Seidlitz prefers to leave the floor to two party colleagues who are up for election elsewhere in two weeks: Claudia Müller, top candidate in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and Werner Graf, who would like to become the governing mayor in Berlin. They also strive for humility on Monday. At the same time, they hope that the surprisingly good Green Party result in Saxony-Anhalt will give them a boost - and that the horror of democratic voters at the AfD's peak on September 20th will pay off with them.

“We also feel the fear that affects many people in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,” says Müller, whose regional association is polled at 5 percent. But also: “Of course we feel a tailwind from the really good green Alliance Green result in Saxony-Anhalt.” However, the general conditions for a tactical loan vote campaign are worse in their state than there: In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the AfD is relatively far away from an absolute majority in surveys. The argument that the Greens need to be in the state parliament so that the right-wing extremists cannot govern alone does not apply here.

Rather, Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) still has the chance to prevent the AfD from becoming the strongest force - and with this hope to suck up the Greens' voters. Müller also knows this, and she modifies the tactical argument: It is uncertain whether the incumbent red-red government will get a majority again. It is unlikely that the CDU will form a coalition with the Left. There can therefore only be a stable majority in a three-party coalition with the Greens. They could be the “stability anchor”.

This story also has a catch. Based on the last Infratest survey, the SPD and the Left would only have to take one percentage point away from the Greens in order to be able to govern together again. On the other hand, it was only shown again on Sunday that you shouldn't rely completely on surveys.

The general conditions for Werner Graf and the Greens in Berlin are different again. The AfD is not only without a chance of participating in the government. Stable democratic coalitions also seem possible without any problems here. The only question is: in what constellation – and with whom at the top?

“What we experienced yesterday is still really bothering me,” says Graf about the result in Saxony-Anhalt. Many people, for example in art and culture, are afraid and are sitting on packed suitcases. Then he makes an announcement: “I’ll say this very clearly: As Governing Mayor of Berlin, I will see it as my job to give these people protection.” He then wants to set up a sponsorship program with endangered institutions in Saxony-Anhalt.

A bold announcement? In the polls, the Greens are currently behind the CDU and the Left. However, Graf could benefit from positioning himself between the two - and thus win votes on both the left and the bourgeois camp.