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The son of a Yemeni diplomat leading a Green surge in central Germany

A rising star of Germany's Greens party, Tarek Al-Wazir hopes to score big in regional polls Sunday at the expense of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.

Published: 25 October 2018 10:37 CEST

The son of a Yemeni diplomat leading a Green surge in central Germany

Tarek Al-Wazir, top Green candidate in the Hesse state elections and Annalena Baerbock, chairwoman of the Greens. Photo: DPA

Already Hesse state's most popular politician in opinion surveys, the 47-year-old Yemeni-German could become kingmaker or possibly even state premier in the region home to Frankfurt, Germany's banking and air transport hub.

It would be a stunning rise for one of Germany's few politicians with an Arabic background, at a time when the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has made strong gains.

The left-leaning and ecologist Greens have been polling strongly nationwide this year, in part because they have opposed most consistently the AfD and propagated an open and multicultural society.

The party, who emerged out of the 1970s peace and anti-nuclear movements, have also been the leading voice warning of climate change and automotive air pollution, issues that increasingly concern voters.

This year the Greens have also benefited from growing turmoil within Merkel's loveless “grand coalition” which has alienated voters with infighting, mostly centred on immigration.

While Merkel's CDU and her partners the Social Democrats (SPD) have both slipped by 10 percent or more in polls since Hesse elections five years ago, the Greens have doubled support to around 20-22 percent now.

This would make them the second strongest party behind the CDU, which is now polling at 26 per cent, opening up a range of possible coalition scenarios.

'Open to the world'

In Hesse, the Greens have been the junior governing partners to the CDU's state premier Volker Bouffier, and Al-Wazir has served as his economy, energy and transport minister.

Al-Wazir attributes his party's new fortunes to their “clear stance” against the AfD, which has railed against Merkel's decision to keep open German borders to a mass influx of mostly Muslim migrants and refugees.

“All other parties have gone crazy about the AfD,” he told conservative daily the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

“We defend a society that is open to the world and multifaceted.”

Al-Wazir himself was born to a German teacher, who would take her son to street demonstrations, and a Yemeni diplomat, Mohamed Al-Wazir.

The politician has recounted discrimination he faced in the 1970s in a society that, he recalls, labelled Italians “spaghetti eaters” and considered him a “foreigner”.

When he was born, a civil servant advised his parents to give him a German second name, suggesting Fritz — a proposal they declined.

Only after a legislative change in 1975 was Al-Wazir able to assume German as well as Yemeni citizenship.

'High time for change'

He grew up in Offenbach, a medium-sized city which has the largest proportion of people with a migrant background in Germany, at over 62 percent.

At age 14, he left for Sanaa where his father lives and for two years attended an international school, a time he says allowed him to “discover the other half of (my) origins, to get to know my family and to learn Arabic”.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Al-Wazir, still in a German high school, joined the Greens in Hesse, the home state of party veteran Joschka Fischer who went on to serve as Germany's foreign minister from 1998 to 2005.

When he was 24, Al-Wazir joined the regional parliament and quickly rose to lead the party in the chamber.

Today, the father-of-two, who is married to a Yemeni woman, is regularly voted the most popular politician in Hesse state.

This week, amid growing international outrage over the Saudi killing of a dissident journalist, Al-Wazir made a strong plea for an end of German arms shipments that could worsen the war in Yemen.

Calling the bloody conflict in his father's country “the world's worst man-made humanitarian catastrophe”, Al-Wazir said that “now it is high time to change the policies of Germany” on defence exports.

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Output is expected to expand 0.3 percent this year, the economy ministry said, up from a prediction of 0.2 percent in February.

The slightly rosier picture comes after improvements in key indicators — from factory output to business activity — boosted hopes a recovery may be getting under way.

The German economy shrank slightly last year, hit by soaring inflation, a manufacturing slowdown and weakness in trading partners, and has acted as a major drag on the 20-nation eurozone.

But releasing its latest projections, the economy ministry said in a statement there were growing indications of a “turning point”.

“Signs of an economic upturn have increased significantly, especially in recent weeks,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said at a press conference.

The ministry also cut its forecast for inflation this year to 2.4 percent, from a previous prediction of 2.8 percent, and sees the figure falling below two percent next year.

“The fall in inflation will lead to consumer demand — people have more money in their wallets again, and will spend this money,” said Habeck.

“So purchasing power is increasing, real wages are rising and this will contribute to a domestic economic recovery.”

Energy prices — which surged after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine — had also fallen and supply chain woes had eased, he added.

Several months ago there had been expectations of a strong rebound in 2024, with forecasts of growth above one percent, but these were dialled back at the start of the year as the economy continued to languish.

‘Germany has fallen behind’

But improving signs have fuelled hopes the lumbering economy — while not about to break into a sprint — may at least be getting back on its feet.

On Wednesday a closely-watched survey from the Ifo institute showed business sentiment rising for a third consecutive month in April, and more strongly than expected.

A key purchasing managers’ index survey this week showed that business activity in Germany had picked up.

And last week the central bank, the Bundesbank, forecast the economy would expand slightly in the first quarter, dodging a recession, after earlier predicting a contraction.

German Economics Minister Robert Habeck

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) presents the latest economic forecasts at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday, April 24th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Michael Kappeler

Despite the economy’s improving prospects, growth of 0.3 percent is still slower than other developed economies and below past rates, and officials fret it is unlikely to pick up fast in the years ahead.

Habeck has repeatedly stressed solutions are needed for deep-rooted problems facing Germany, from an ageing population to labour shortages and a transition towards greener industries that is moving too slowly.

“Germany has fallen behind other countries in terms of competitiveness,” he said. “We still have a lot to do — we have to roll up our sleeves.”

Already facing turbulence from pandemic-related supply chain woes, the German economy’s problems deepened dramatically when Russia invaded Ukraine and slashed supplies of gas, hitting the country’s crucial manufacturers hard.

While the energy shock has faded, continued weakness in trading partners such as China, widespread strikes in recent months and higher eurozone interest rates have all prolonged the pain.

The European Central Bank has signalled it could start cutting borrowing costs in June, which would boost the eurozone.

But Habeck stressed that care was still needed as, despite the expectations of imminent easing, “tight monetary policy has not yet been lifted.”

In addition, disagreements in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party ruling coalition are hindering efforts to reignite growth, critics say.

This week the pro-business FDP party, a coalition partner, faced an angry backlash from Scholz’s SPD when it presented a 12-point plan for an “economic turnaround”, including deep cuts to state benefits.

Christian Lindner, the fiscally hawkish FDP finance minister, welcomed signs of “stabilisation” in the economic forecasts but stressed that projected medium-term growth was “too low to sustainably finance our state”.

“There are no arguments for postponing the economic turnaround,” he added.