Grassroots discontent

Green state election: A tit-for-tat response from migrants

Delegates of Turkish origin were particularly outraged by the re-run of the election.

(Bild: Philipp Stewart)

Displeasure among the grassroots about the Green Party leadership. Has a Green veteran become the pawn of Turkish members?

The Greens' state party conference at the trade fair will leave its mark. In addition to the list of candidates, the party statutes were also discussed. As a reminder: five local councillors needed a two-thirds majority of the delegates to stand for re-election. There were too many invalid votes in the first ballot. "We were unable to assign many of them to the candidates," said the election commission. The vote was therefore repeated individually due to the sometimes close result. In the end, Martin Margulies, the long-standing Green Party MP and budget spokesperson, was ousted.

The Greens put together their list of candidates for the Vienna elections at Messe Wien

(Bild: FLORIAN WIESER / APA / picturedesk.com)

"This is reminiscent of Erdogan methods."
Has the party's economic expert become a pawn? The delegates of Turkish origin in particular were not sparing with their criticism of the second round of voting. On-site comment: "This is reminiscent of Erdogan methods." The exclusion of the young Green councillor Ömer Öztas in the run-up to the convention is also still causing outrage in the community.

Payback for Öztas' exclusion?
"For five years, he has brought our problems to the political scene," says Green delegate and Chamber of Labour official Mesut Kimsesiz, adding, "Ömer was active, mobilized people - and apparently became a threat to some people's positions." Other parties are now courting the former local councillor. Kimsesiz: "They are offering him a new political home. And in the Turkish community, this is currently being hotly debated. We're talking about thousands of voters here."

Criticism from the Turkish base
Kimsesiz himself has been a member of the Greens for ten years and also criticizes the party's treatment of its migrant members. "The Greens have always talked about grassroots democracy - but where is it now? Many party members don't even know what really happened because there is no clear information." He criticizes the fact that important decisions are made without transparent communication. The Green leadership, on the other hand, sees the result as an example of the grassroots democratic process.