Did the late Christian Ströbele really shape the values of the Greens, as top Green politician Annalena Baerbock says? Was he actually a “convinced democrat”, as the foreign minister claims? A fact check – based on the statements made by Ströbele himself.
The obituaries of the most important Green ministers seem like an attempt at an illegal posthumous “cultural appropriation” of the radical Christian Ströbele by today’s Realpolitiker of the Greens. Ströbele can no longer defend himself against this. In any case: Robert Habeck “impressed” Christian Ströbele. For Annalena Baerbock he was “quarrelsome, clever” and someone who shaped “the politics and values of the Greens”. A “staunch Democrat”. Cem Özdemir called him a “great fighter for the green cause”.
As a reminder, here is the penultimate tweet from Twitter fan Christian Ströbele, it dates from July 25: “Greens always wanted ‘peace without weapons’, now ‘peace with more and more heavy weapons’. Now instead of ‘Need nuclear power plants’ – ‘Need nuclear power plants please’ against the alternative, continue with Russian gas? When will the next pillar topple? Just don’t.”
Now save articles for later in “Pocket”.
Ströbele commented on the fresh approval of the traffic light coalition – with Green participation – for a free trade agreement with Canada, Ceta, including the right of action for industry, with a call for resistance against the policy of “his” Greens: “We had demonstrated en masse against this. Has not yet been adopted. It’s time to deal with the base. Let’s get to it.” The Federal Foreign Minister is currently defending the sanctions against Russia from the Greens. They would stay, she said at the “Forum 2000” in Prague – “regardless of what my German voters think” (“no matter what my German voters think”).
Apart from the oath of office that the minister swore “for the good of the German people”, Christian Ströbele has the usual clear opinion on this subject: “But trying to force Putin to his knees with an oil/gas embargo is not a good idea . Now Dt (Germany) seems to have the damage with new debts in the billions and longer burning of the coal. Putin sells his commodities at higher profits. It’s a pity actually.” With that, the green Ströbele completely opposed the Russia-Ukraine and the energy policy of the top green duo Habeck/Baerbock.
Ströbele also had his own ideas about the “value-based foreign policy” propagated by Annalena Baerbock. ARD is currently celebrating Sweden’s accession to NATO “without reporting that Erdogan presented the bill: 70 Kurdish/Turkish refugees must be extradited.” The price of joining NATO for the betrayal of human rights is too high. Do not forget.”
At the end of June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that NATO was a defensive alliance that did not attack any countries. Nato and America opponent Ströbele awakened unwelcome memories in the federal government: “What was it like when NATO bombed Belgrade, houses, factories and passenger trains in Serbia in 1999. Or when it attacked Afghanistan in 2001 and waged war there for 20 years? NATO is also attacking countries. Unfortunately.”
Ströbele was a police critic and opponent of the Bundeswehr. The special fund Bundeswehr, passed by the traffic light government with the participation of the Greens, Olaf Scholz’ “Zeitenwende”, commented caustically on radical anti-militarist Ströbele: “It used to be called war credits.” now also back in Europe,” he asked.
In view of the threats of a nuclear war by Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Ströbele called Germany’s “forced” delivery of arms to Ukraine by politicians and the media: “bad”. The “war rhetoric of some – including the Greens – is annoying and dangerous. Scholz’s restraint is more responsible and better.” Ströbele didn’t give a damn about the tank discount, which he also called a subsidy for big gas guzzlers: “It wasn’t like that with fewer cars for the climate.” That was the FDP (from a green point of view: after all…).
In contrast to the Greens, Ströbele was a tough opponent of compulsory vaccination against the corona epidemic. “So what? Many refusers continue to refuse. They are being hunted down by the state.” This will lead to “anger and hatred” at “unjust state repression”. “Hunted” by the state – his very specific opinion on the state monopoly on the use of force does not make Ströbele the unquestionable democrat that the green establishment appreciates him as.
Ströbele, one can hardly put it any other way, hated the Americans. He believed that American politics was best reflected in cowboy films, which he liked. This led him to an at times grotesque perpetrator-victim reversal. “How long will Afghan people have to atone for the Taliban winning the war?”
Aid for Afghans can be paid for with Taliban money, but this money is locked in the United States. “Saving lives comes before politics of isolation,” he wrote on New Year’s Eve last year and wishes “Happy Holidays.”
Since Angela Merkel, Israel’s security has been a “German reason of state”, the Green Federal Foreign Minister sees it no differently. Ströbele also had a drastically different opinion on Israel. When Israel was attacked with Iraqi rockets in the Iraq war, Ströbele said: “The Iraqi rocket attacks are the logical, almost inevitable consequence of Israel’s policy.”
Ströbele pleaded repeatedly and for years, in 2012, 2013 and 2016, for the abolition of the incest paragraph in Germany. The incest ban no longer fits in with the times. Sibling sex should be allowed.
Finally, an original sound on the subject of Ströbele as a democrat. Four years ago, the Frankfurter Rundschau asked him: “Some say your biggest mistake was that you were too close to the RAF.” Ströbele’s answer: “I didn’t have that either. But I don’t see that as a mistake. You have to consider that the relationship one had with comrades in the APO was much more intense than with party friends. We were together against the rest of the world. For years we did the same thing. Ulrike Meinhof and Andreas Baader demonstrated on the street – just like me.”
PS The ARD Tagesschau paid tribute to Ströbele in its obituary under the headline: “A lateral thinker who followed his conscience.” Almost two hours later, at 1:51 p.m., the “lateral thinker” had disappeared from the headline. And it was only said: “One who followed his conscience.”
