Green before the Hesse election: Left, center, oh no matter

Joschka Fischer, to whom the Greens maintain an ambivalent relationship, once said when asked if he was still a leftist: "Yes, I ask you, but of course, and I can also tell you exactly how I define on the left: the conviction to hold on to an egalitarian image of society. "

This naturalness has been lost to the Greens in recent years. "I do not understand ourselves as left in the sense of the left party", said party leader Robert Habeck in an interview with the "time". When asked whether the Greens are a left-wing or a bourgeois party, Habeck said in an interview with SPIEGEL that he sees no contradiction between the left and the bourgeois. In Bavaria, one had bourgeois virtues that many would have missed in the CSU. Friendliness, confidence. And became the second strongest force in the new state parliament.

Cem Özdemir, ex-party leader from Baden-Württemberg, living in the green Berlin-Kreuzberg, said he was very angry about the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, because he did not want to see the Greens as a bourgeois force. He does not want to see left and right, instead he speaks of "buttocks geography".

"Reason shapes geiler"

So where do the Greens want to locate themselves? In SPIEGEL was recently, the Greens are a large projection screen. You could also say that the Greens are a bit reminiscent of a wish-you-something event. Conservative? No problem. Left? Neither. The Greens can serve everything.

After Bavaria now chooses Hesse. The green top candidate Tarek Al-Wazir is ideologically not bogged down. Green, yes, but please with a lot of pragmatism. In 2015, for example, he spoke out in favor of the TTIP free trade agreement - which is actually an absurdity for the Greens, especially with regard to ecological issues. Now his motto is "reason shapes geiler".

With TTIP advances you have to be careful as Grüner, because what unites the party, is the ecology. Many who belong to the reigning Realo wing are more radical on ecological issues than the leftists in the party.

But even the question of diesel bans is not clearly answered by Al-Wazir. He said recently that his goal is not driving bans, but clean air. That can mean everything or nothing.

But that does not seem to bother the voters. Al-Wazir is the most popular politician in the state, according to recent surveys his party could even replace the SPD as the second strongest force.

Federal President Annalena Baerbock sees no contradiction in Al-Wazir's position: "It is our goal to free inner cities from traffic jams and exhaust fumes, so we need a fundamental change in transport policy - overall concepts and the necessary infrastructure are needed - bike paths, buses, trams This is the only way we can ensure mobility for everyone in the inner cities, in the future without cars, and then a lot would be won, "she told SPIEGEL.

They want to replace the SPD

The winged word of the Greens of these days is the left center. They want to occupy them, especially the SPD as still leading force replace. They benefit from the weakness of the SPD, poaching in SPD-friendly circles.

But above all in the countries, they also want to woo the Union voter. In Bavaria, according to Infratest dimap, 180,000 voters came from the CSU. In relative terms, this represented 6.6 percent of the previous Union voters. This is a great success for the Greens and they are proud of it.

Only recently, the green Baden-Württemberg Minister President Winfried Kretschmann wrote a book. Title: "What we want to rely on", subtitle: "For a new idea of ​​the Conservative". Kretschmann is in the shooting club, in the church choir. Future needs origin, he believes.

The Green Party boss Baerbock wants to cultivate this diversity: "If we see the alleged contradiction between radical and state-supporting as an opportunity and not as a weakness, then this is really only the beginning," said Baerbock in early January in her application speech.

Positions to the left of the middle - but rhetorically they are soft

The green positions are mostly left center, in the refugee policy they are liberal, the party is for Europe and the fast coal exit. This and their electorate make them the antipole of the AfD.

Nevertheless, the Greens strive conspicuously for conservative voters. In Bavaria, they often emphasized how many votes they could win from the CSU. They try to penetrate new milieus. The biggest challenge for them next year will be the state elections in East Germany. In some surveys, they are just over five percent. That does not fit with a leading force of the (left) center, so they have to open up new groups.

It may be dangerous. For a widening of the voter layer also always means a broadening of opinions, positions, concerns. In a party that is as ideological as the Greens are, this strategy can be unsuccessful.

Just consider what has happened to the popular parties: The SPD is accused of blurring and flexibility, the CDU, no clear conservative profile to have more. That could also be the fate of the Greens. Already, they almost talk themselves out of their links.