Leftovers as Party-poopers: the Performance of the German Greens in the Federal Election of September 2005 and the Rise of the Left Party

摘要

In May 2005, when the Social Democrats announced their plan to bring the Bundestag elections forward to one year before term, to Autumn 2005, the German Greens (Buendnis 90/Die Gruenen) had to prepare for a snap electoral campaign. At that time they had served in the government since September 1998 in a coalition with the SPD. They supplied three of 12 federal ministers, Joschka Fischer as Foreign Minister, Renate Kuenast as Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection and Juergen Trittin for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. The story of the Greens in Germany had by then been a story of success. Since their formation in 1980 they had gained ever-increasing numbers of voters; but in the spring of 2005, it became clear that the campaign would be an uphill struggle. In this profile article we will provide an overview of the main campaign strategies and results, as well as an analysis of the federal election from the perspective of the Green party, covering the period between the announcement of the reduction of term and the election on 18 September. Although they failed to stay in government, the German Greens achieved almost the same result as in 2002. As will be seen, the main reason for the change has been the successful performance of the recently founded Left Party (Linkspartei), a merger between a group of former Social Democrats lead by Oskar Lafontaine, ex-Minister of Finance (1998-1999) and the PDS, successor of the former East-German socialist party SED.