'Pizza connection' between German conservatives and Greens
Key takeaways
- Thirty years ago, rivaling politicians from Germany's conservative CDU and the Greens met to discuss their differences ― and what they had in common.
- "That also requires a union of the political mainstream."
- The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is a think tank that is nominally independent, but closely aligned with the CDU.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Thirty years ago, rivaling politicians from Germany's conservative CDU and the Greens met to discuss their differences ― and what they had in common. The pizza connection was born. Now that format is being revived.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Ejzd Senior CDU politician Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (left, holding a mug of tea), attended a Green Party conference in April Image: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa/picture alliance Advertisement Heading into a recent meeting of her party's parliamentary group, Green Party co-leader Franziska Brantner almost casually announced a surprise: At a meeting of all 85 federal Greens lawmakers held in Leipzig at the end of April, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, former head of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), had been an invited guest.
"Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is the chairperson of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which is working on the question, as are we, of what we can do to prevent society from falling apart at this time," the Greens' other co-leader, Felix Banaszak, told DW. "That also requires a union of the political mainstream."