The German Review

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The German Review
The German Review
Green decision day

Green decision day

A five-minute read

Jörg Luyken's avatar
Jörg Luyken
Apr 09, 2021
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The German Review
The German Review
Green decision day
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Dear Reader,

The Green party are about to do something they’ve never done before. On April 19th, they are going to announce their first ever candidate for Chancellor of Germany.

Since entering the Bundestag for the first time in 1983, the environmentalists have remained a minor force, only once gathering enough votes to make it into double figures.

In some ways this outsider status has made things easy. The Greens have traditionally struggled with the contradiction between their anti-authoritarian principles and being part of a system of power. For decades, Fundis (fundamentalists) on the left of the party ensured that the Social Democrats were the only acceptable coalition partner.

In the past few years though, that has changed. At the state level they are now involved in 11 governments, mixing and matching with Social Democrats, Free Democrats and even Christian Democrats.

Since 2018 they have been led by a duo from the so-called realo wing - moderates who favour coalition building and c…

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