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🇩🇪 Germany /Elections & Politics

Election campaign ends with Banaszak calling for dialogue with eastern Germans, not lectures

From Die Zeit · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Green Party co-leader Felix Banaszak urged voters and politicians in Saxony-Anhalt to pursue dialogue between eastern and western Germany rather than mutual reproach.
  • Green politicians warned that democratic parties must rebuild trust and reject efforts to dismiss large parts of the electorate as angry or lost.
  • The AfD’s support remained high in polls, while the Greens stood at 6%, just above the 5% threshold for entering the state parliament.

Felix Banaszak ended the Greens’ campaign in Saxony-Anhalt with a warning: a harsh argument about the differences between eastern and western Germany would only divide the country.

A genuine East-West dialogue that is not aimed at lecturing the other side, but at learning from each other and growing together.

· Felix BanaszakHe called for a less confrontational debate between eastern and western Germany.

Speaking at the party’s closing event in Halle, the Green Party leader called instead for “a genuine East-West dialogue that is not aimed at lecturing the other side, but at learning from each other and growing together.” He said conversations had sometimes ended too quickly in recent years, without the extra effort needed to build trust.

Banaszak said Germany, Europe and perhaps the whole world were watching Saxony-Anhalt as the state prepared to elect a new parliament. Former Green leader Ricarda Lang said that even if the party returned to the state legislature, its work would only be beginning. Democratic parties, she said, needed to ask how they could regain trust and could not dismiss or give up on a large part of the population as angry citizens.

Maybe in recent years we sometimes ended the conversation too early, and sometimes did not make the extra effort that was necessary and right.

· Felix BanaszakHe reflected on failures to maintain dialogue during the campaign.

Baden-Württemberg Premier Cem Özdemir praised East Germans for the courage they showed during the peaceful revolution of 1989. “You made this revolution possible, and it was peaceful and successful. It led to the dictatorship being overthrown and our country being reunified,” he said.

You made this revolution possible, and it was peaceful and successful. It led to the dictatorship being overthrown and our country being reunified.

· Cem ÖzdemirHe praised East Germans’ role in the 1989 peaceful revolution.

Özdemir also criticized the AfD for repeatedly using language associated with the fall of communism in its election campaigns. “The AfD must not misuse the peaceful revolution that you made possible for its dirty purposes,” he said. The latest Forschungsgruppe Wahlen poll for ZDF put the Greens at 6%, narrowly above the 5% threshold. The election was due to take place on Sunday.

The AfD must not misuse the peaceful revolution that you made possible for its dirty purposes.

· Cem ÖzdemirHe criticized the AfD’s use of the revolution in its campaign rhetoric.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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