Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - Hesse's Greens want to nominate their own candidate for the office of Prime Minister for the first time at their party conference next Saturday with Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir. It was time to start a three-way battle for the state chancellery, said Al-Wazir in Wiesbaden on Wednesday. Since the last state election, the Greens have had a new role in the Hessian party system. The number of members has risen from around 6,000 to around 9,800 since 2018.
In Hesse, a new state parliament is to be elected on October 8th. The vote in the fall five years ago was extremely close: In the end, the Greens came in second behind the CDU, 66 votes ahead of the SPD. The Christian Democrats received 27.0 percent of the votes, the Greens and SPD 19.8 percent each.
The two Hessian party leaders of the Greens, Sigrid Erfurth and Sebastian Schaub, are expecting more than 1000 participants at the state general meeting next weekend in Wetzlar. Unlike other parties, any member of the Greens can go to a party conference and vote - not just pre-appointed delegates.
In addition to the prime minister candidacy, a vote is to be taken on the occupation of the state list. The Greens wanted to become the leading political force, said Erfuhrt. Therefore, the first 40 list places would be voted on individually. The Greens have 29 mandates in the state parliament in the current legislative period.
Science Minister Angela Dorn is a candidate for first place on the list, and Vice Prime Minister Al-Wazir for second place. According to the statutes of the Greens, every odd place on the list is occupied by a woman.
