Letter: Defining centre ground of German politics is tricky

I agree with the point you made in your editorial “Greens freshen stale air of German politics” (FT View, April 22) that the last thing Germany needs is “more of the same”. You also propose that a coalition of Greens with the Social Democrat (SPD) party and pro-business Free Democrats would be an alternative to one of the centre-left and far-left and that this coalition would blunt one of the strongest arguments of Armin Laschet, the Christian Democrat boss. This is that voting for the Greens would allow former communists into power via the back door.

Traditionally and in realpolitik, the Greens are a left-radical party, co-operating with the Antifa and other extremist left groups. Take energy policy, where the Greens reject any arguments for gas as a means of transitioning from fossil fuels to a green economy. Greens do not compromise easily.

Although Robert Habeck lost out to Annalena Baerbock as the Greens’ candidate to be chancellor, he will be her clear number two in government.

I have experienced Habeck as a minister of agriculture and environment, where he didn’t make any compromises with regional farmers. He often let farmers introduce his measures (which he discussed with them before) voluntarily, but if they did not accept to do that, he would force the measures on the farmers.

In the Landtag, where I worked as environmental scientist and political adviser, I also noticed how radical the SPD’s stances are, in many areas even more radical than the positions taken by the Green party.

If the centre of a political spectrum is the place where representatives of society find agreement, then, of the parties making up this proposed “traffic light” coalition, the Free Democrats would remain the only real centre force.

Rainer Winters
Editor, Analogo.de
Kiel, Germany