Since May 2021, the Baden-Württemberg state association of the Greens has been heading for a medium-sized catastrophe.

The reason is the party expulsion proceedings against Tübingen Mayor Boris Palmer, initiated by the former state chairmen Oliver Hildenbrand and Sandra Detzer and a party congress resolution.

For a long time it looked as if this conflict could only end in defeat: Either Palmer would have been expelled, then the party would have lost its most popular politician after Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann.

Or the process would have failed – then the state party leadership would have been embarrassed.

Ruediger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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After several hours of negotiation by the party arbitration court, this could now be averted: the court made a settlement proposal, which Palmer and his lawyer Rezzo hose accepted on Saturday.

The green state board unanimously approved the comparison at a special digital meeting on Sunday.

It contains three agreements: Palmer will suspend his membership until December 31, 2023.

The state executive wants to talk to him next year about how he can bring his positions, which often deviate from the Green majority opinion, into the internal party discussion in the future without affecting the "principles and order of the party".

In addition, the procedure is discontinued.

Expulsion from a party is possible under the Political Parties Act if an arbitral tribunal can prove that a party member violated principles,

The trigger was a Facebook post

The state chairmen Lena Schwelling and Pascal Haggenmüller interpreted the comparison as Palmer's admission of guilt: "By agreeing on the settlement offer, Boris Palmer acknowledged that he violated the principles and order of the party." It is clear: "Boris Palmer has the limits exceeded what we as a party have to endure.” At the same time, the comparison shows that the party can bring the case to a constructive conclusion.

Now, after the "exhausting debate", the party can "refocus fully on the substantive work".

Palmer himself wrote on his Facebook page that the comparison made it clear “that I am still a member of the Greens”.

"In conviction and actions I remain green anyway." It seems to him that it "makes sense" to end the dispute now.

Palmer's lawyer Rezzo hose criticized the statement of the party executive.

The claim that the settlement sanctions Palmer is "misleading."

A settlement means that both sides have shown concessions to settle the dispute.

By agreeing to the settlement, the mayor of Tübingen was "doing his part to settle the conflict." He was "not punished," said Schlauch.

The suspension of party membership means Palmer cannot run for party office or vote at meetings.

The trigger for the expulsion process was an allegedly satirical post by Palmer in May 2021, in which he had used the word "negro cock".

Palmer is optimistic about mayor election

The written justification, written by the Cologne party lawyer Sebastian Roßner, contained more than 20 statements on 34 pages that Palmer made between 2015 and 2021 and with which he is said to have violated the principles of the Greens.

These included less weighty ones, such as the accusation that he had called for a CDU candidate to be elected in a mayoral election, but also those that could have been used to justify an exclusion from the party – such as the post mentioned or the public discrimination against a cycling asylum seeker in Ulm.

The surprising turning point in the hardened conflict is said to have come about through a further application by the lawyer for the state executive committee, which was received four days before the arbitral tribunal session.

In it, Palmer's non-partisan candidacy for the mayoral election in the fall was rated as damaging to the party.

The referee Heidemarie Vogel-Krüger then worked out the settlement proposal with her assessors Simon Letsche and David Vaulont.

The additional application had made the situation for Palmer more difficult: In Tübingen, the district association held a primary election at the beginning of April to determine the mayor candidate, from which district councilor Ulrike Baumgärtner emerged as the only candidate with 55 percent.

Palmer didn't run for the primary, saying he couldn't run for any party

According to the green district association, Palmer would not have received a majority if he had participated in the primary election.

The mayoral election is on October 23.

Palmer is optimistic because he was able to collect donations in a short time and a poll predicts his victory.

The district association says: “With the primary election, we wanted a political clarification as to whether Boris would suit us.

He didn't face it.

This comparison is not an acquittal.”