{news} The Greens and the German Elections

[Justine McCabe]

Submitted to Portside
 September 21, 2005
 
The Greens and the German Elections
 
By Victor Grossman
 
BERLIN
 
"Not with me," said Joschka Fischer, head of the Greens
 Party, who remains Foreign Minister until a new
 government is formed. His refusal meant he would not
 join a government headed by Angela Merkel, the leader
 of the right-wing Christian Democratic Union, which won
 a very thin, unexpectedly thin victory in last Sunday's
 election - nudging out Gerhard Schroeder's Social
 Democrats by nine tenths of a percentage point which
 meant three seats in the Bundestag.
 
Fischer's seemingly steadfast, principled position was
 actually surprising because it was his first such stand
 in most people's recollection. Unfriendly voices
 suggested that it was based less principle than on
 hopes of coming back stronger another day or year.
 
Such cynicism reflected the situation in his party
 (called officially "Alliance 90/ The Greens"). It is no
 longer the party it once was, nor is it the party some
 American Green supporters may think it to be. Not any
 more!
 
During the 1980's it was a new, vigorous leftist party
in West Germany - definitely not "communistic" but
deeply committed, not only on environmental issues. It
was feminist, anti-war and in some ways even anti-
capitalist. The delegates it got elected to state
legislatures and later to the national Bundestag
captured attention with their casual clothing (often
knitted sweaters) and manners, with some men and women
knitting during congresses and taking the kids along.
Their emblems, a sunflower and a little hedgehog, and
rules like demanding a constant rotation of their
office holders, symbolized a fresh wind in the stuffy
chambers of West German politics.

But then a fissure developed and gradually led to a
split - between the so-called "fundis" for
fundamentalists, who largely rejected the political and
economic system ruling the country, and the "realos",
or realists, which meant pragmatists.
 
As the party grew in strength it was the realos who
proved stronger. The first Green minister in a state
government was sworn in wearing sneakers and no tie; it
was Joschka (pronounced Yushka) Fischer. When the
Social Democrats beat the Christian Democrat Helmut
Kohl in 1998 but needed a partner to gain a majority in
the Bundestag, the Greens seemed a natural ally, and
Fischer became Deputy Chancellor and Foreign Minister.
Two other ministerial posts were also given them,
Environment and Agriculture/Consumer Welfare.

But once in the government their radical positions were
filed smoother by contact with the tough Social
Democrats. The latter two ministers continued pushing
on ecology, gas consumption, and a cut in reliance on
atomic energy, but their muscles tired with each year
in the government. Ecology Minister Trittin, once a
radical, made one compromise after another on shutting
down atomic energy plants (two of the oldest have been
shut down, many others have long leases), energetic
agriculture minister Kynast gradually softened her
opposition to gene manipulation.

Most clearly, however, Fischer broke with Green
pacifism and joined Gerhard Schroeder in supporting the
war in Yugoslavia, including the bombing of Serbia with
German assistance, approving the sending of German
soldiers and sailors to hot spots around the world, and
re-establishing the old assumed right of German empire
to move its troops and weapons wherever it wanted, in
its own interests - most recently to Afghanistan.
Weapons of war were sold to all and sundry. And though
the German government won applause by peace-lovers
around the world for refusing support for the invasion
of Iraq, which helped win the election in 2002 by a
hair, Germany still permitted the USA to use bases in
Germany as a relay point for soldiers and materiel
moving to or from Iraq, while German soldiers guarded
the bases, permitting US soldiers to be sent to Iraq.
In all this, Fischer concurred.

To make things worse, Fischer and the Greens supported
Schroeder in all his neo-liberal attacks on social
welfare, allegedly to get the sluggish economy moving.
This meant cutting jobless pay, increasing the costs of
medical treatment and medicines, freezing the usual
increase in pensions (to match inflation), and quietly
approving increases in work hours and cuts in vacation
or Christmas pay -  benefits which had cost working
people years of struggle. At the same time they went
along with, indeed approved cuts in taxes on the
wealthy.

On some issues the Greens did maintain a decent
policy, in words at least, as in the treatment of
immigrants and asylum seekers. But they were often
overruled by tough Social Democratic ministers. They
were more or less successful in permitting homosexual
marriages. But that was not enough. What had happened
was that radical young intellectuals of the 1980's had
often become well-to-do professionals, with certain
principles but fewer and weaker ties to the poor and
exploited and far less interest in their welfare. On
the grass roots level there was opposition to this
change of direction, but party leaders made sure it
remained under control and that Bundestag
representatives toed the Schroeder-Fischer line, which
was becoming increasingly anti-social while
unemployment stayed stubbornly near the five million
level, and over 20 percent in  parts of Eastern Germany
which were largely ignored by the Greens, who had
little support there.

One exception was Hans-Christian Ströbele, who
maintained ties with the peace movement and his
interest in social welfare issues, although he usually
buckled to party discipline during close votes in the
Bundestag. He fought and won, with little support from
his party, his race for reelection from a key inner
city borough of Berlin, and will be the only Green
representative from the capital city. But he was and
remains a colorful and occasionally courageous
exception.

With the present confusing situation in the party
landscape, requiring unusual realignments or, in the
last analysis, new elections which no one wants, the
Greens could either join their old partners, the Social
Democrats, or their traditional foes, the Christian
Democrats. But neither of these possibilities would
have a majority, meaning that in both cases the
reactionary Free Democrats would also be required. Thus
far they have refused to join with the Greens, although
some Green voices have been heard whispering, more or
less; "Hey, fellows, we are not really so radical as
you have always painted us. Except for atomic energy
plants and a few other issues we are not so far apart
after all!" It is this possibility which Fischer has
rejected - but only for himself.

If no such three party coalition proves possible then a
"grand coalition" of the Social Democrats and Christian
Democrats may be the solution, leaving the Greens out
in the cold opposition. The really new factor in this
weird equation, which makes the jockeying necessary, is
the new alliance between the Party of Democratic
Socialism (PDS), strong in East Germany, and the newly-
formed Election Alternative for Jobs and Social
Justice, stronger in the West and led by a former
Social Democratic leader, Oskar Lafontaine. This joint
endeavor, quickly named the "Left", which hopes to
unite fully  as a regular party within a year or two,
won a surprising 8.7 percent of the voters, overtaking
the Greens, who dropped slightly to 8.1. This not only
reflected a protest by working people and the jobless
but also a new unity on the left, which permitted it to
break into the states of Western Germany which had
never accepted the PDS, seeing it as a progeny of the
old, hated GDR. But the new Left got 4.9 percent in the
West, a remarkable jump from the past (and up to 20
percent in a few areas), and  25.4 percent in the East.
It will be represented by 54 representatives (the
Greens will have 51).

Every party, including the Greens, has insisted it
will never join a coalition with the Left - which
doesn't want to join anyway. Its role is opposition; it
may be ostracized by the others but it is too large to
be ign ored. The others fear it because  it will be the
only party to oppose sharp cuts in social welfare, tax
presents to the wealthy, the military buildup and
military adventures abroad. It will fight against neo-
Nazis, anti-Semites, anti-foreigners (one of its Berlin
representatives is a leader of the Turkish community,
one of its two top leaders is Gregor Gysi, who is the
son of prominent Jewish anti-fascists. Although its
four main leaders as yet are all men, as it ruefully
admits, 26 of its 54 delegates are women, many of whom
have been leaders at the state level and are moving
ahead into top leadership. If it can maintain its unity
- no easy task - it will represent a new hope in German
politics

Its presence, if it remains militant and united, will
help the progressive elements still present among the
Greens, the Social Democrats and even in the two
rightwing parties. At present, anything is possible.

_______________________________________________________
 
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