Paedophilia and the Green Party

Traditionally, the Green Party has harboured some proud rebels against social conventions. Its politicians have a long history of making uncomfortable announcements that they may or may not regret later on. Paying the price for being radical is also currently the main defence of the Green politician Cohn-Bendit who has repeatedly publicly declared that pedophilia should be de-criminalised. In the past, he went further and said that girls as young as 6 'enjoyed having sex' with him and that this couldn't possibly constitute child abuse 'since we are still friends'.

Cohn-Bendit, from the Green Party, boasted about his pedophilia but now says it was all just talk

Over the last week, the Green Party (which advocated the legalisation of child abuse in its manifesto in the past) engaged in a damage limitation exercise. The party president announced that it would ask an independent panel to investigate how 'entrenched pedophilia' has been amongst party members. The party hierarchy does not deny that in the past, legalising pedophilia was one of its main social reform aims.

It is most instructive however that the party only feels obliged to examine its past mistakes at this stage,  as the public outcry became impossible to ignore over an award Cohn-Bendit received from the Prime Minister of Baden-Wuertemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, another Green Party member. In his award speech, Kretschmann compared pedophilia to homosexuality, arguing that being gay used to be illegal as well.

For those who always suspected the Greens as the standard bearers of vile behaviour there can be no surprise at the comments of Kretschmann or Cohn-Bendit. It is just another  incidence where the radical left reveals its real nature: for politicians like Kretschmann and Cohn-Bendit, political engagement is not a means to do right by victims of power, but to shift public perception to gain immunity for the wrongs they have committed themselves.