Green party national co-chairman Omid Nouripour told reporters early on Wednesday that he and co-chair Ricarda Lang would be resigning their posts. 

"We came to the conclusion that a new start is needed," Nouripour said in Berlin. 

New leadership should be chosen at the party conference in November, he said. 

Move follows 3 lackluster September state elections out east

The Greens have endured three disastrous state elections in eastern Germany this month. Most recently, on Sunday in Brandenburg, they missed the 5% hurdle required to guarantee representation in parliament.

"Sunday's election result in Brandenburg is evidence of the most serious crisis in our party in a decade," Nouripour said. 

The same was true in Thuringia earier this month, and in Saxony the party barely scraped over the 5% hurdle. 

Nationwide it's also struggling in the polls, as are all three members of the federal coalition government. 

Lang says 'new faces' needed to lead party out of doldrums

Lang told reporters in Berlin that "new faces" were needed now "to lead the party out of this crisis." She said that the new leadership should serve as a "building block for the reorganization of this party." 

"Now is not the time to cling to our posts," Lang said. "Now is the time to take responsibility, and we are taking this responsibility by enabling a new start." 

Lang said the current leadership, including their deputies and other officials, would remain in place until the party conference in November when replacements would be chosen. 

Habeck praises 'strength and far-sightedness' of decision to quit

In Germany's political system, party leaders or chairpersons at the federal level are not necessarily also the party candidates for chancellor.

This is also the case for the Greens. Currently, Economy Minister Robert Habeck is considered most likely to stand as the party's chancellor candidate in next year's federal elections, given that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said she does not want the position for a second consecutive election.

Habeck praised his colleagues on Wednesday. 

"This step shows great strength and far-sightedness. Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour are proving what they mean to the party leadership: responsibility. They are clearing the path for a powerful new beginning," Habeck said. 

"Difficult months lie behind us, the Greens were suffering major headwinds," he said, adding it was certain that federal politics had played its part in the poor performances out east. "We all bear responsibility here, myself included. And I also wish to face it." 

Habeck said that he wanted there to be an "open debate" and a "secret vote" at the party conference in November on a potential chancellor candidate. He did not explicitly say he also wished to stand for the post.

The Greens' recent decline in numbers

In the space of roughly five years, the Greens have gone from an outside shot at being the party to field Germany's chancellor to a group barely polling above 10% support nationwide.

The party secured 14.8% of the vote at the last federal elections in 2021, and became the second-largest party in the current national coalition, under the Social Democrats (SPD). 

This result was simultaneously the party's best ever showing at a German national election, and yet also a disappointment of sorts.

In the months leading up to the vote, the Greens briefly appeared to be in a three-way race to be the largest party in the country and possibly field the next chancellor. But these hopes rapidly evaporated amid the campaign. 

Since entering the coalition government, the party has struggled in the polls as the mainstream opposition CDU/CSU makes up ground, and as the populist right-and-left-wing AfD and BSW also increase their vote shares.

Most recent polls currently put the party somewhere between 9.5% and 13% support nationwide, likely to become the fourth largest party if national elections were held now. The CDU/CSU is polling in the low 30's, the SPD is in the region of 15% and the AfD somewhere between 17-20%. 

msh/wmr (AFP, dpa)