What in god’s name is the Green Party of Germany doing?

The Greens are the second party in the coalition government that got elected two years ago. The government is heavily backing the US/NATO military intervention against Russia in Ukraine.

Annalena Baerbock, of all people, is the Foreign Minister who’s leading the militaristic charge.

The Green Party of Germany used to be very anti-militaristic and somewhat skeptical of NATO. Glenn Greenwald is askance about an apparent turnaround and/or abandonment of principles.

I respect Glenn Greenwald, but he’s likely not all so attuned to the situation in Germany as to understand: The Greens and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) are probably thrilled to death to have the opportunity to demonstrate to the centrist majority of the German populace that they can act just as “responsibly” (in an establishment way) as the traditional establishment party, the Christian Democratic Union (to which Angela Merkel belongs). For many years the CDU polled 40% and could usually form a government along with a center-right minor party. The Greens and the Social Democrats are thinking that if they can each appeal to just another 5% (each) of centrist voters — which would give the Greens 20% and the SPD 30% — they might have a chance to become the new regular establishment, the new default government. They figure it would move Germany toward being standard-left-centrist rather than standard-right-centrist.

For this to happen the Greens must become the kind of stinknormal party they originally disdained. But when someone has a chance to become the primary force, the main show, the popular choice … it’s kind of irresistible. The rationale is that it would improve the politics, improve the culture of one of the five most significant countries in the world. Center-left rather than center-right. To do so, right now, under some special circumstances, they have to emphatically demonstrate to the populace the “center” part of the equation.

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Glenn Greenwald show 2/28:

G. Greenwald: I’m sure the head of the German Green Party or like the prime minister of Finland, their dream is to win the John McCain award. And, you know, the politics are very similar. We interviewed Sarah Wagenknecht, the head of the actual left-wing party in Germany called Die Linke, the left. And it’s a very similar dynamic in France, in Germany, obviously here, in the United States, where the only opposition to these kinds of globalist or NATO-based wars come from the populist right and the populist left.

It’s amazing that Europe has gone insane and is fully on board with this neoconservative consensus that dominates the establishment wings of both parties in the United States.

M. Tracey: The Green Party of Germany is like almost the most emblematic example, maybe even more so than the Democratic Party in the U.S., of this total narrative shift to the point where you can’t even figure out what principles it’s tethered to anymore.

G. Greenwald: They’re total fanatics.

M. Tracey: […] because the foreign minister within the coalition government headed by Scholz, and in Germany is this woman, Annalena Baerbock, who is the most ardent and has been since the war started, badgering Scholz to be more aggressive in deploying weapons, totally abolishing the entire foreign policy philosophy that Germany had been maintaining since World War II. So that’s out the window, as we know.