Costly climate rules are turning Germans away from the Greens

“Green is gettingSPDFDP too Brown,” moaned the graffiti in Germany’s capital late last year. The scribblers were hard-line environmentalists. Their gripe was that the Greens, one of three parties in Germany’s ruling Ampel or “traffic light” coalition, were going soft. By agreeing to crank up coal power to replace lost imports of Russian gas, and to delay by six months the long-planned shutdown of Germany’s last three nuclear plants, the Greens had bent so far right they were shading into a colour that Germans link not just with grubbiness but with fascism.Six months later much of the German public is also upset with the Greens, albeit for the opposite reason. Instead of the Greens doing too little for the environment, many now think they do too much. No one calls them fascists, but even their partners in government, the bigger Social Democrats () and smaller, liberal Free Democrats (), seem to find them too bossy. Sniping between Robert Habeck (pictured), the carefully tousled Green deputy chancellor in charge of the economy and environment, and Christian Lindner, the Porsche-driving liberal finance minister, looks increasingly like an inter-elite culture war between advocates for climate responsibility and for personal freedom.