Alliance 90/The Greens

Alliance 90/The Greens (), 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.

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 create their own party.

This Party was founded under the Name "Die Grünen" in Karlsruhe on 13 January 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. After a short while some right-winged people left the party, so they became a centre-left party. The party has centrist and left-wing factions.

Leaders 
First chiefs of the party were Herbert Gruhl and Petra Kelly. Its current co-leaders are Ricarda Lang and Omid Nouripour, who were elected as the party's co-leaders in January 2022.

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 
Alliance '90/The Greens support green politics. One of their main issues is saving the earth - especially the climate - without using nuclear power.

Another issue raised by the party is 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 

 Joschka Fischer, former foreign secretary and vice chancellor of Germany
 Petra Kelly, pacifist, first chairman of the Greens
 Jürgen Trittin, former environmental secretary of Germany
 Otto Schily, later SPD and home secretary of Germany
 Renate Künast, former secretary for agriculture of Germany
 Hans-Christian Ströbele, lawyer and former chairman of the Greens, only successful direct candidate of the Greens in the Bundestag
 Cem Ozdemir, co-chairman of the Alliance'90/The Greens party
 Winfried Kretschmann, current Minister President of Baden-Württemberg
 Robert Habeck, current Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and vice-chancellor of Germany

References