We have reacted calmly to the Corona pandemic and mitigated its consequences with major support programs," the Hessian Greens announce in their review of the most difficult phase in the ten years of their coalition with the CDU. What is not mentioned is that the eco-party pushed through a debt program with a gigantic volume of twelve billion euros to finance the extremely generous aid. It was unconstitutional.
The thesis that the Greens have proven their ability to govern in the Corona crisis is also not supported by the administration of the responsible, but consistently overwhelmed Minister of Health, Kai Klose. Some of the tasks that actually fell to him were carried out by the Ministry of the Interior. At the end of the parliamentary term, the forty-nine-year-old retires from politics. Then the Minister of Consumer Protection, Priska Hinz, will also leave. The fact that it has endured so long shows what it is made of. The food scandal surrounding the sausage manufacturer Wilke was of a dimension that had already brought down several federal health ministers in the past.
Often more appearance than reality
The Greens have "given politics in Hesse a whole new direction," says parliamentary group leader Mathias Wagner, highlighting, for example, the designation of two percent of the state as a wind priority area. In doing so, however, the Black-Green coalition only implemented a decision made in 2011. At that time, the eco-party was in opposition. The CDU governed together with the FDP.
Moreover, the designation of a site as a priority area is by no means to be equated with the erection of wind turbines. It takes an average of just under 38 months for them to be approved in Hesse. This means by far the last place in a comparison of the federal states. Fortunately, the eco-party did not set a "completely new direction" in another central aspect of the country's policy. Before the coalition with the CDU, she had resolutely opposed the expansion of the airport.
To this day, the Green Minister of Economic Affairs, Tarek Al-Wazir, guarantees that it will be realized, as previously decided by the Union and the FDP. He personally is also against closing the gap of the A 49 between northern and central Hesse, but must realize it on behalf of the federal government. On the other hand, he is responsible for the construction of cycle paths on state roads. But the General German Bicycle Club complained again this week that Hesse was in third last place in a nationwide comparison.
Stable government work in Hesse
An example of the unmistakable achievements of the Greens are the flat-rate tickets for pupils, senior citizens and state employees. They came up with the idea for the Deutschlandticket. If the model proves itself at the national level, the party will have set its own, in a double sense a lasting accent. The fact that the coalition partners treat each other to such successes is one of the customs of the alliance, which has been extremely stable for almost a decade.
Right from the start, then-Prime Minister Volker Bouffier called the Greens "bourgeois in the best sense of the word." This was an accolade with which the eco-party was certified by the highest authority, as it were, the ability to govern. The role as a coalition partner of the CDU/CSU gives the Greens the nimbus with which they are now entering the election campaign.