Numerous fixed-term employees have been laid off from Germany’s The Greens party after poor election results and continually falling short in polls.
Since the national elections in February 2025, German Greens have been polling at around 10 per cent, while being pushed into the opposition.
This has caused tensions and frustration within the party headquarters, where the number of employees had already been reduced from 190 to 150.
According to German newspaper Handelsblatt on August 14, this number will continue to shrink to 120 people.
When this was announced during an extraordinary meeting one employee described the party’s board approach as “non-transparent, dishonest and in parts simply mendacious”.
Another mentioned “massive displeasure” among his colleagues who also spoke of the “downfall of the party”.
Making things worse was that in some areas where jobs are to be or have been cut, new jobs were being advertised at the same time, making the personnel policy from above seem arbitrary to many.
The Greens have also been struggling with high rates of sick leave in their offices, particularly among employees whose contracts were due to end this year and who have already stopped coming to work.
The Greens’ treasurer Manuela Rottmann also vented her opinion: “This is a f**k-up sh*t day.”
Co-chair Felix Banaszak reportedly justified the staff cuts with the need to save money.
After the election defeat in February, The Greens lost a share of their party financing, which is distributed according to the number of votes each party received.
Party financing rules in Germany stipulate that every percentage point lost shrinks the budget by about €1 million and The Greens lost above 3 per cent.
Some within the party blamed the previous leadership of former party leaders Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour, who in their view created structural problems within the organisation.
Others pointed at the new party co-leader Franziska Brantner, who they blamed of not taking enough interest in how the party works, according to news outlet Focus.
German media has revealed that a man was fined over a social media post that described Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and Vice Chancellor of Germany, with a pile of poo emoji. https://t.co/tXfWfi9s8P
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) November 19, 2024
