From Hildburg Bruns
The shaky course of the Greens leadership on the climate referendum CO2-neutral 2030 is causing harsh criticism within the party. Ex-school senator Sybille Volkholz (79, Greens) warns of the costs: “Kita expansion or school construction would no longer be possible.”
Volkholz has many questions for her party leadership – but did not get any answers, as she writes in an internal chat.
First, the referendum in the Senate was stamped as unrealizable, then the environmental senator and parliamentary group leader Bettina Jarasch (54) suddenly changed her position: she wants to vote for it next Sunday. Allegedly to increase the pressure on the implementation of climate projects. So far, Berlin has set its sights on the target year 2045 for CO2 neutrality.
Sybille Volkholz (79, Greens) was a school senator in the first red-green senate from 1989 and later developed the Berlin Reading Sponsors project Photo: Ralf Lutter
Volkholz criticizes: “The initiators of the referendum do not see themselves in a position to name specific instruments with which it could be achieved. But we have to do that as a political party – whether in government or in opposition. The costs – regardless of whether you accept the Senate’s estimate or the initiative – would take any leeway out of the Berlin budget.“
Volkholz also criticizes Jarasch’s argument: “As a political party, it’s not enough to want to put pressure on anyone.” Finally, she calls on her party friends from the moderate Realo wing in the internal chat to vote no on Sunday.
During the coalition negotiations, the CDU/SPD have already agreed on a large loan package for climate protection. It is to be handled outside the budget in a special fund in order to circumvent the debt brake. In a first step, five billion euros are to be invested in the energetic refurbishment of buildings, the expansion of e-mobility and fossil-free energy.
