A Green Spring in Germany: a bellwether for the Autumn?

In March’s two state elections, no party lost more ground than Angela Merkel’s ruling CDU. Tarred by deepening scandal, a slow vaccination rollout and lockdown fatigue, its popularity is plummeting. Conversely, big gains in these early contests in the nation’s super-cycle election year — culminating with September’s federal parliament and chancellery vote — show that public opinion is turning decidedly Green. New polling shows that as approval for the CDU and their CSU sister party collapses, the Greens are pulling almost even with them — in some cases, even creeping slightly ahead. As spring comes to Germany, for the first time in both national and party history, a Green chancellorship seems possible. Energy Transition’s lead blogger, Michael Buchsbaum reviews the early stage of the race to succeed Merkel. Imagining the unimaginable In mid-January the Green Party’s co-leaders, Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, walked into the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Berlin headquarters building ahead of the year’s kickoff discussions. Asked about her party’s chances in September’s federal elections, Baerbock replied that, though “we are still the underdog…last …