Berlin's top Green candidate Graf: Pragmatic - and little known

The Berlin Greens have a good chance of participating in the next Senate. Top candidate Werner Graf is betting on a moderate election campaign, which should keep many options open for him. By Tobias Schmutzler and Max Kell, rbb The wheel of fortune turns on the Herrfurthplatz in the Schillerkiez, a young and politically rather left-green district in Berlin's Neukölln district. In the last elections to the House of Representatives, the Greens were by far the strongest force in this part of the district.

For their lead candidate Werner Graf, the campaign appearance here would have to be a home game. At the stand of the party there are small gifts: stickers, tattoos or a wind fan - of course with a green logo. When Mario-Heinz Adergast-Schulze comes by, he is not interested in party merchandise. He addresses the lead candidate, because Werner Graf is unknown to him so far.

"Don't be angry now," says Adergast-Schulze, a stocky older man in the shirt of the Berlin Bundesliga club 1. FC Union. “I mean, I know a lot of the Greens, but I practically don't know you at all." Werner Graf, fan of the other big Berlin football club Hertha BSC, takes it easy: "Nö nö nö, alles gut. We are now making an effort to ensure that the name is used until the 20th

September." The meeting matches the result of the BerlinTrend, which Infratest dimap has collected on behalf of rbb: Werner Graf is the least known top candidate in the Berlin election campaign. 64 percent of the respondents do not know him. Graf avoids sharp demands and public controversy. Since 2016, Graf has held leading positions with the Berlin Greens. He was co-chairman of the party from 2016 to 2021, he has been in the House of Representatives since 2021 and has also been chairman of the parliamentary group since 2022.

The 45-year-old is a candidate for the left wing of the party and belongs to the powerful green district association Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. Graf was born in Neumarkt in Upper Palatinate, Bavaria. He is married and used to work as a journalistic editor and political speaker. In the past ten years, Graf has often attracted attention with his exaggerated demands.

During the 2023 election campaign, he wanted to abolish every second parking space in Berlin. He explicitly avoids such headlines in the current election campaign. Just like a charged public dispute like the one over Friedrichstraße a good three years ago. At that time, his predecessor as a top candidate, the then green traffic senator Bettina Jarasch, wanted to permanently close part of the central shopping street in Berlin-Mitte to cars.

After a court declared the blocking illegal, the then Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) called for the opening up of car traffic. The public conflict shaped the election campaign and, from the point of view of critics, became a symbol of a rigorous green transport policy. At an election stand in the old town of Spandau, a western suburb of Berlin, Graf is confronted with the conflict at the time. Passer-by Georg Raab is interested in what lessons the party has learned from this.

"After the last green term, I had the impression that the Greens had fought each other a bit," says Raab. "I would have the idea that you would have a more pragmatic approach to topics such as the Friedrichstrasse cycle path." Less raised index finger, for example in transport policy With this, Werner Graf meets open ears: "We have learned from Friedrichstraße. You have not heard from me in this election campaign that I go through the wall with my head." The media-charged dispute at the time was a "mistake", Graf said, and one should have approached it "a little more relaxed". "And we're doing it differently now, "says Graf, grinning.

In general, the Greens now seem to want to appear with less raised index finger in transport policy and thus also keep more coalition opportunities open. In terms of content, his preference is clearly a coalition with the left and the SPD - with Graf questioning how capable and willing the left in Berlin is to govern. Graf can also imagine a cooperation with the CDU, although the programmatic overlaps are much smaller. In terms of content, the green candidate focuses on better functioning public transport, strict regulation of landlords and the conversion of unused offices into rental apartments.

Is moderate appearance simply a tactic? Incidentally, it is very unusual for the Berlin Greens not to have a woman at the top in this election campaign. There was also rumour in the party for the first time after Graf was surprisingly presented as a top candidate for many in July 2025. Individual members, such as the Berlin Green MEP Andreas Otto, criticised the fact that the closest circle of the party's executive committee had taken the decision instead of having the entire membership base vote in an open procedure.

Now Werner Graf relies on a controlled election campaign, which should keep many options open to him - and from his point of view ideally enables the office of the Governing Mayor. He denies that the more moderate appearance in this election campaign is simply a tactic. In his view, a balanced policy is the only right thing to do in the current period, as democracy is being attacked from different directions. For Graf, the only red line is cooperation with the AfD.

In addition, he wants to remain open to all possible coalitions.