Franziska Brantner elected co-leader of German Greens going into snap elections

WIESBADEN, Germany — The Green Party in Germany elected new leadership on Saturday, with Franziska Brantner being tapped as co-leader, as the party looks ahead to snap national elections in February.

“Germany can do more,” Brantner, who is well-known in Europe, said in her acceptance speech at the party convention in Wiesbaden, painting a bleak picture of a country mired in economic crisis. “Bridges are crumbling, schools have broken toilets, and not only the railways have no mobile phone network,” she said.

To address these issues, “investment, investment and more investment” is needed, Brantner said. In addition, bureaucracy must be reduced and climate protection must be promoted, she said. This is the “best chance for a strong economy,” she added.

Brantner wants to “make Green great again,” she said, adapting the slogan of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whom she has criticized as a threat to global climate policy.

Brantner will remain state secretary in the German economy ministry, headed by Robert Habeck, Germany’s vice chancellor. He is expected to be nominated as the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor on Sunday.

Brantner has considerable EU experience. She was responsible for EU and trade policy in the economy ministry. She has also served as an MEP and is the German government‘s special representative for an international initiative to reduce corruption in the extractive industries.

Europe is in her DNA, she said in her speech on Saturday. “We need peace in Europe, in Ukraine,” Brantner said. But this was “not submission,” she added. Addressing her remarks to Russian President Vladimir Putin, she said: “We are now independent of your gas, and we will now invest much, much more in the security of Europe.”

The party’s previous leaders, Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour, resigned in September after disastrous results in elections in three eastern German states.

Brantner will lead the Greens together with Felix Banaszak, who was also elected in Wiesbaden on Saturday. The party is part of the remnants of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s former traffic-light coalition, which collapsed last week.

Sven Giegold was elected as the party’s political director, leaving his post as German State Secretary for Economic Affairs. He was previously an MEP.

The new Greens leadership will have to regain ground in the polls for the party, which is hovering around 11 percent.