Alliance '90/The Greens

Alliance '90/The Greens (German: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), commonly referred to as (The) Greens, is a political party in Germany. It was formed in 1992 by the Western German party Die Grünen and the Eastern German Bündnis '90. Its main interests are ecology, civil rights, equality between men and women and the chances of immigrants in the German society. Their motto is now, for tomorrow.

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen
LeaderSimone Peter and Cem Özdemir
HeadquartersPlatz vor dem Neuen Tor 1
10115 Berlin
IdeologyGreen politics
European affiliationEuropean Green Party
International affiliationGlobal Greens
European Parliament groupGreens / EFA
ColoursGreen
Website
http://www.gruene.de

History

Early years

In the 1970s, there were a lot of protests against nuclear power in Germany. The protesters had no support in the political parties in Germany. So they got the idea to found their own party.

This Party was founded under the Name Die Grünen in Karlsruhe on January 13th, 1980.

Since their aims were for civil rights and ecology, a lot of former Anti Vietnam War protesters joined the party. The Greens were pacifists and strictly against nuclear weapons. They wanted to reach a de-militarized Europe.

Leaders

First chiefs of the party were Herbert Gruhl and Petra Kelly. After a short while some right-winged people left the party, so they became a left-winged party.

Influence

In the old GDR, a Green party was founded in 1989 and joined to the Western Greens in 1990. In 1993 the Bündnis 90 - a civil rights movement from the former GDR - and Die Grünen joined them.

In 1998 they joined the federal government under Gerhard Schröder together with the Social democrats.

Programme

The Greens are interested in ecology, so one of their main issues is saving the earth - especially the climate - without using nuclear power.

The second main issue of the Greens is gender mainstraming.

The third issue are the integration and the chances of immigrants in Germany.

In the foreign policy the Green changed their position in their first period in federal government. Before that time they wanted German soldiers only to allow peace keeping missions of the United Nations, many Greens wanted a de-militarized Germany. After their legislative period - with main influence of foreign secretary Fischer - they accepted to join international military missions e.g. in Afganisthan. But their main issue is to avoid conflicts by development policy and international cooperation. Main issues of foreign policy are international envoirementional and climate saving projects like the Kyoto protocoll, the development of the European Union and a reform of the international law like the installing of the International Crime Court in The Hague.

Prominent Green politicians