Europe | Germany’s Greens

Pragmatism paints a paler shade of Green

Climate climb-downs fail to damage Germany’s Greens

BERLIN, GERMANY - JANUARY 28: German Economy and Climate Protection Minister and outgoing party co-leader of the Greens, Robert Habeck, and German Foreign Minister and outgoing party co-leader, Annalena Baerbock, deliver a speech at a virtual party congress of the German Greens party on January 28, 2022 in Berlin, Germany. The party, a junior partner in the new German federal coalition government, is electing new leadership over the course of the two-day congress. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Getty Images)
The dream Green teamImage: Getty Images
|BERLIN

Imagine being a Green party in a crisis-hit government. Which news image would you dread more: footage of monster mechanical claws tearing up lush fields to expand a coal mine, or of a riot squad dragging away Greta Thunberg, the impish, Swedish-born patron saint of climate-change activism?

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “A paler shade of Green”

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