Leading German Pollster Warns: Green Movement Has Shades Of Brown – Threatens Democracy In Germany

Those who have been monitoring the environmental movement in Germany over the years know that it is driven by an elitist, authoritarian and intolerant class of people who at times don’t refrain showing their contempt for democracy.

Now Manfred Güllner, the founder and director of one of Germany’s leading pollsters, the Forsa Institute, confirms our deep concerns as he speaks out on the green movement in an interview with Der Spiegel. Remind you that Güllner is the Prince of Pollsters in Germany.

Güllner has released a new book, and according to Spiegel he wrote that the “green dictatorship” threatens “the second attempt to firmly establish democracy in Germany”.

When pressed on this claim, the 71-year old Güllner defends it, saying that since the Federal Republic of Germany has been founded, he observes that democracy entails much effort for Germans, and reminds us that “sociologically speaking, the original nucleus of the movement stems from the Weimar period and today the green movement is in the same anti-modern segment of society, a radicalized part of the German middle class”.

In the interview Spiegel asks:  “You claim the greens scare the voters away from the voting booths, and that the shrinking voter turnout undermines democracy. Why do you say that?”

Güllner: In local elections, one sees a clear relationship: The higher the percentage of votes that the greens get, the lower the voter turnout. It’s also clear to see internationally. Over the last 30 years, nowhere in western countries has voter turnout dropped more than in Germany. At the same time, the greens have gotten especially strong here.”

He uses the southern industrial state of Baden Wurttemberg, which not long ago elected a Green Party governor, Winfried Kretschmann, as an example. Güllner tells Spiegel:

In Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann got only 16 percent of all eligible voters behind him, yet he was able to derive a mandate for a radical political change. No wonder that many people there do not feel represented.”

Güllner explains that the success of the greens is based on populist environmental issues, like who isn’t against a clean environment and peace? He adds:

The greens also have massive support from scientists and a large part of the German mass media. This media-scientific support give the greens an impact that is much bigger than what they really are.”

This is no exaggeration. Green activists, politicians and organizations are constantly interviewed as “experts” and “authorities” in the media. And they are rarely criticized.

Güllner ends the interview saying that the mainstream parties (CDU and SPD) have gotten too green, and that the green party needs to deflate its ego, as it is exercising a disproportionate amount of influence.

 

12 responses to “Leading German Pollster Warns: Green Movement Has Shades Of Brown – Threatens Democracy In Germany”

  1. DirkE

    I just ordered that book via amazon.

    Funny is:

    Verlag Herder GmbH, Freiburg im Breisgau

    Freiburg is the greenest city in Germany….

  2. DirkH

    Well, of course. Yesterday I told that Malthusian All-Party Enquete Commission of the German Bundestag exactly that in their contact form – that I don’t bother to vote anymore.

    BTW, FORSA guy doesn’t mention my second reason to stop voting: That the legislative power resides in the hands of non-elected Eurocrats in Brussels.

    I am sure Der Spiegel – whose publisher travels to every Bilderberg conference to receive his orders – likes it this way.

  3. Mindert Eiting

    In The Netherlands the Greens now have four seats in Parliament (they got one rest-seat). It has become a splinter-party but I think they have never resembled the German Greens very much (actually quite decent people).

    1. DirkH

      The problem is not so much that our Greens are a nutcase party dominated by a few old communists, but that all other parties look like carbon copies of them.

  4. archaeopteryx

    What worries me is the support from scientists which gives an air of legitimacy, authority, or correctness. Scientists exist and prosper because someone is funding them. If the decision makers for the funding are either biased, or have an agenda, or are plainly “less than brilliant”, the scientists are capabe to prove that the earth is flat.

    If I discount bias or idiocy among the policy makers, that would leave the agenda as the motive.

  5. Jan

    Uber alles Deutschland. Remember, the Nazis were the first green party and Hitler and his inner circle were filthy little green kooks. This time round they were smart, and relied entirely on propaganda and social engineering to accomplish their goals.

  6. mwhite

    What with the green bubble, the German tax payer seems to be in for a bit of a kicking

    http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=83180

  7. Martin van Etten

    I am probably missing something, mr Gosselin:

    where is Güllner saying: ” Green Movement Has Shades Of Brown”?

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