Green Party in Germany

The Green Party in Germany is called Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Alliance '90/The Greens). It's part of the current (1998-2002) government coalition, with the vice-chancellor and secretary of state Joschka Fischer as most prominent party member. It has roughly 50.000 members. In the last federal elections, the Greens got 6,7% of the popular vote. Because Germany is using a more or less proportional voting system, that means 48 members in the German Bundestag, out of sixhundred and something.

The Green Party was founded in 1979 as Die Grünen. After the German unification in 1990 it fusioned with the east german citizens movement Alliance '90. It is represented in most communal, regional and state parliaments (Landtagen) and in the federal (Bundestag) and european parliament. There are even some cities with green mayors.

The history of the german Green party is a history of political development. Starting with Petra Kelly as an anti-party party, it nowadays is part of the established party system. In the beginnig there was a strong eco-national faction inside the party, which moved out quickly. In the 80ies, the Greens were seen as a leftist party. In the 90ies, the more pragmatic and "real-politische" faction ("Realos") gained weight and is now dominant.

More information can be found at http://www.gruene.de (german).