February 9, a headline caused a stir: Annalena Baerbock now employs Jennifer Morgan, the former head of Greenpeace, as special representative for international climate policy.
An open lobbyist in the federal government? “How can that be?” wondered many commentators on social networks.
The Federal Foreign Minister also encouragement received. LobbyControl, a German NGO, defended the federal minister with several tweets. It must be possible to bring experts from outside into the ministries. The transfers in the opposite direction are more of a problem. And anyway: lobbying for non-material goals should not be equated with organizations that pursue it for their own financial purposes.
After all, the organization admitted that Morgan would have to represent the interests of the federal government in the future and not those of Greenpeace.
An organization that, according to its own website, wants to be a counterweight to the ever-increasing influence of think tanks, PR agencies and their tricks, denies the problem. Our lobbying is better than your lobbying…
But apart from the problem of hiring a lobbyist in an important and representative position within the federal government, the question of Greenpeace’s “ideal goals” also arises. Is Greenpeace really an organization that works for the common good? Is Greenpeace a serious organization that achieves positive things? And is Morgan, as the former head of this organization, actually an added value for the German state?
Looking at Greenpeace’s activities, the affirmative answer to these questions seems unlikely. The organization has been engaged in populist and sensational activism for years.
You don’t have to look far for examples, we all remember the crash landing of the Greenpeace activist in Munich’s Allianz Arena. At the qualifying game of the German national team, the activist landed in the middle of the field after injuring two people on the head a few seconds earlier. The action was about putting pressure on the car company VW, which was being urged to get out of the combustion engine. Because of the same issue, Greenpeace activists later stole 1,500 keys to VW vehicles in Emden that were to be exported.
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