Ginsberg Addresses Germany’s Green Party Annual Conference in Berlin

Government Professor Roy Ginsberg recently returned from his second trip to Germany in two months — this time, as an invited guest of the German Green Party to its annual foreign policy conference.

Ginsberg was a panelist on “The German Role in European Security Policy” with Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, and Daniel Vernet, editor of the French newspaper Le Monde.

According to Ginsberg, the Feb. 21-22 conference revealed strains within the Green Party, which is the junior partner in the current Red-Green federal coalition between Gerhard Schroeder (of the Social Democrats) and Joschka Fischer (of the Greens). Ginsberg believes “the fissures within the Greens on foreign policy do not bode well for the Green Party in the run-up to September’s elections for the Bundestag” (Germany’s parliament).

He explained that the Greens are internally divided over the leadership of Fischer. The left wing of the party (known as the Fundamentalists, or “Fundis”) prefers a robust anti-American stance on the war against terrorism, while the party’s right wing (the “Realos”) supports Fischer’s position on the deployment of German troops to help in securing post-war Afghanistan.

Additional complications are the weak German economy and growing government debt. Says Ginsberg, “The Germans will vote with their pocketbooks in September, unless the economy begins to turn around by summer. The Greens need to receive five percent of the national vote to retain seats in the Bundestag.”

The Greens started as a social and environmental movement and entered the federal coalition four years ago. Since then, Ginsberg explained, “Party leaders have had to accept the responsibilities of political leadership, which means compromising on many of their core issues — especially with regard to environment — in order to share power in governing Europe’s most powerful country. The results of September’s parliamentary elections are important to Germany’s friends in Europe and America. The central role that Germany plays in the construction of a democratic and stable Europe at a time of international terror is critically important to the capitals of Europe and to those of the new world, as well.”

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