The Green party pledges foreigners in Germany should know about

Recent surveys show the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, are the frontrunners ahead of the German election on February 23rd, although they've dropped a couple of points. 

According to a YouGov poll on January 22nd, the CDU/CSU had 28 percent of the vote (down from around 30 percent in previous weeks). The conservative bloc is followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), with 21.5 percent.

However, because all of Germany's major parties refuse to work with the AfD, the CDU/CSU will have to look for another coalition partner to govern with, should they win the election. 

Current predictions show that the CDU could work with either current Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD), which has around 19 percent of the vote according to polls, or the Greens, with chancellor candidate Robert Habeck, who have around 15 percent.

READ ALSO: 

• Citizenship to Bürgergeld - the laws the CDU wants to scrap if it wins power
• How would a strong AfD election result impact foreigners in Germany?

We recently wrote about the Social Democrat policies that may affect the lives of foreign nationals living in Germany, so let's now turn our attention to Green policies.

What are the Greens pushing for in general?

The Greens (officially known as the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), who stand at the moment largely on the centre-left of the political spectrum, want to focus on boosting the German economy, according to their election programme. They want to reform the debt brake, which limits the amount of debt the government can take on, and put together a 'Germany Fund' to aid future investments. 

The party also pledges to focus on renovating infrastructure and - staying true to its environmental roots - making the country climate-neutral. 

There is also a focus on funding for schools and daycare as well as bringing down the cost of living. For instance, the Greens want to make housing affordable by extending the rent brake and improving the law around it to close loopholes, to bring down the cost of the Deutschlandticket back to €49 per month and to provide cheap electricity. 

To make social contributions more affordable, the party also wants to switch to a health insurance model in which nobody can opt out by paying into the private system. With more high earners paying into the insurance pot, costs could be kept lower for average earners, they argue. 

READ ALSO: How German parties want to end soaring social contributions

Meanwhile, they are pushing for “Klimageld” (climate money), allocating money from corporate carbon taxes to low and medium-income families, as well as subsidies for e-cars. This was originally in the manifesto of the now-defunct 'traffic-light' coalition but ran into roadblocks at the Finance Ministry. 

Other goals include installing a 'global billionaires' tax', making Germany more digital friendly and, like the SPD, the Greens want to raise the minimum wage to €15 per hour. 

Are there any policies - or views - that might specifically affect foreigners in Germany?

One of the big aims of the CDU/CSU is to dismantle the citizenship reform that was brought in last year by the SPD, Greens and Free Democrats (FDP).

READ ALSO: How the conservatives want to gut German citizenship laws 

However, if the CDU/CSU teams up with the Greens, you can expect the Greens to push back on this. After all, they view it as their achievement and even mention it in their manifesto. It reads: "With the introduction of a modern citizenship law, we have finally recognised the reality of our diverse society."

The party also says that Germany "is and will remain a country of immigration", adding that it is part of the country's "social and economic strength".

In the previous 'traffic-light' coalition, the Greens helped bring in skilled worker immigration reform. 

This time around, the Greens want to "ensure that the best skilled workers can and want to come to us easily - with simplified immigration procedures".

The Greens also want women to "have equal opportunities on the labour market: through equal pay and a better work-life balance".

READ ALSO: The party pledges that will affect foreign residents in Germany

On the topic of asylum seekers, the Greens say they want to combat the causes of people having to flee their homes with "forward-looking diplomacy, and adequately funded humanitarian aid in crisis situations". 

They are in favour of Germany continuing to provide protection to people fleeing and want "fast and fair procedures" to "create clarity for those affected and for local authorities", as well as continuing to allow family reunification and removing "existing restrictions".

READ ALSO: Who is Germany's Green party?

However, the Greens add that "not everyone who comes to Germany can stay". They say asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal paths, and if there no obstacles to deportation, "must leave the country quickly".

What might be the end result?

Well, firstly, CSU leader Markus Söder has been pushing back on working with the Greens. So it is unclear on whether the conservatives will enter into a coalition with the eco-friendly party. As we mentioned above, the CDU/CSU could instead end up working with the SPD - an outcome the German newspaper Zeit has classed as "very likely".

This will all become clearer after the election when Germans have voted, and conversations between the different parties can begin. 

If the Greens and CDU/CSU do get down to coalition negotiating, the final result will depend on each party's priorities. 

Now of course the Greens would be a junior partner, meaning they wouldn't have a whole lot of power at the negotiating table to make their dreams come true (especially next to the right-leaning CDU/CSU which has altogether different priorities). But they may be able to trade off on certain things. 

They could be in a good position to defend the current citizenship and immigration legislation, for instance. And the parties could work together on some economic policies to boost Germany's financial position, as well as foreign policies such as standing with Ukraine.