Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 68

Upon entering parliament in 1983, the Green Party was in opposition, that
is, not a member of a ruling coalition. A few months earlier in a dramatic
about-face, the Free Democrats had deserted their coalition partners, the
Socialists, and formed a new coalition with the Christian Democrats. This
continued. The only logical partner for the Greens would have been the
Socialists, and together they did not have enough votes to make a major-
ity coalition. At the state level, however, the Greens held the balance of
power in Hamburg and Hesse. Negotiations broke down in Hamburg, but
in Hesse the Greens cooperated with the Socialists to make a deal. The
combination voted for the budget and confirmed the Socialist candidate
for premier, in return for halting construction of nuclear plants, among
other concessions.
These decisions on whether to cooperate with other parties in parliament
sparked dissension within the party between the “realos” and the “fundis,”
in other words, the realists and the fundamentalists. The fundis opposed
cooperation. They wanted to control their parliamentarians by votes and
directives from the grassroots. They wanted members of parliament to
serve only one term, and then retire so other Green candidates could be
elected. The two sides differed on policy as well as procedures. The fun-
dis demanded that nuclear power plants be closed, that the US missiles be
removed, and that Germany withdraw from NATO. The realos ignored
these demands, solidified their positions of authority, and compromised on
policy. An accommodation within the party was to have co-presidents and
co-chairmen at many levels, one from each faction. In the 1987 election,
the Greens increased their share of the vote to 8.3% giving them 44 seats.
The Greens were overtaken by the events of 1989 when the Berlin Wall
came down and the East German government collapsed. In anticipation of
the all-Germany elections, the Greens made contact with a parallel move-
ment in the East, the Alliance 90 (Bündnis 90) but decided not to cooper-
ate formally. The eastern group focused more on civil rights and had been
leaders in the fall of the Communist regime. The Greens did not favor uni-
fication of the country, preferring two Germanys, both militarily neutral.
Furthermore, the Socialist Party added some pro-environmental planks to
its platform, sucking votes away. The result was a disaster for the Greens,
who won only 4.8%, thus failing to break the 5% threshold, and resulting
in no seats in parliament. Alliance 90 won 6% of the eastern vote, thus
winning eight seats. Had the two cooperated, they would have won 40 seats.
The Greens learned their lesson and formed a coalition with Alliance 90
for the 1994 national election. The combination won 7.3%, thus getting