The weight of the Greens in the next European Parliament will largely depend on how well the German Greens do in the June 9 elections. Currently, they alone hold 21 of the 72 seats in the Greens/European Free Alliance (EFA) group. This is a consequence of the 20.5% they achieved in 2019, their best-ever result on a German scale.

This year's European elections are shaping up to be much more difficult for the German Greens. "Five years ago, our issues were at the top of the agenda. We were buoyed by a momentum that took the form, in particular, of the major youth climate protests, which were particularly important in Germany," said Hannah Neumann, who was elected MEP in 2019 at the age of 35. "Today, the political debate is radically different. Climate issues have taken a back seat to other concerns such as purchasing power and inflation, which obviously complicates things for us."

Of course, the German Greens are not the only ones to suffer from this Europe-wide trend. But to this disadvantage is added another: the fact of being in government, which is the case for the Greens in only three other European Union countries – Austria, Belgium and Ireland. "In 2019, we were in opposition, which made it easy for us to point out the government's mistakes," said Neumann. "Since 2021, we've been part of the government. So we no longer have that leverage to campaign."

Already during the October 2023 regional elections in Bavaria and Hesse, the Greens paid dearly for their participation in the coalition of Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz: In these two western Länder, they fell by 3 and 5 points respectively compared to 2018. Since then, the federal government's image has not improved. In the latest ARD-DeutschlandTrend monthly barometer, published on May 2, 79% of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the government, exactly the same percentage as on the eve of the elections in Bavaria and Hesse. "Being part of a government with such a bad image is obviously a problem, and we're bound to pay for it at the ballot box on June 9," said Green MEP Martin Häusling, a member of the European Parliament since 2009 who is campaigning for a fourth term.

"As a specialist in agricultural issues, I was able to measure, during the recent farmers' protest movement, the extent to which we are repellents in this milieu but also in other sectors of society, as evidenced by the increasing number of attacks against us," said Häusling. Of the 2,790 crimes committed in 2023 against elected representatives or activists of the seven parties represented in the Bundestag, 1,219, or almost half, were directed at the Greens. They alone were the victims of more criminal acts than representatives of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) (478) and Chancellor Scholz's Social Democratic Party (SPD) (420).

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