Early on though, the German Greens split into two camps, even as the larger parties tried to squash their successes in the polls by refusing to make a coalition with the new-kids-on-the-block. These two camps of the Greens have been called the "realos" (realists) and the "fundis" (fundamentalist). This led to some lively TV and private debate in the party for decades as the Greens often remained in the Opposition and could thus afford to be very critical--especially, due to the party's popularity as a voice for the disenfranchised- but-more-thoughtful Germans (many of whom had originally been upset with the Grand Coalition of the dominant parties in the late 1960s).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_party#Belgian_and_German_roots
These German grey beards of the early 1980s joined forces with the more youthful anti-nuke movement of that same era to voice the fears and concern of a majority of Germans in both East and West. The Greens, more than any other party gave a voice to the fear that a war between East and West was too costly to play around with. This led young people in East and West Germany to seek to build as many bridges as possible between East and West in the 1980s.
Alas, by the 1990s, the Green "realos" eventually came to be ever more dominant, especially after those Greens in what had been West Germany came to be integrated with the smaller group. This smaller group was known as Buendnisse '90 (Alliance 1990) and came from East Germany. (Preceding the autumn elections after the October 1990 Unification of Germany, Alliance and the Greens had joined forces.) By end of the 20th Century, the Green/Alliance Party in Germany was sharing coalition government with the Social Democratic Party (SPD)of Germany.
One of the most famous representative of the 8 years that the SPD/Green Government was in power in Germany was Joschka Fischer. However, more than a decade after that particular Green party became part of a German governing coalition for the first time, many younger voters in Germany are no longer as enamored by the Greens because, Fisher and other "realos" had given away some of the more sacred issues of the Green Party--issues which had fired the national imagination in the early 1980s.The most obvious move away from its useful ideas had been when the Fischer-led Greens/Alliance surrendered its position as the party which most represented pacifism and anti-war or anti/weapons stances of both many young and older Germans.
Therefore, on the one hand, it is certainly true that as foreign minister, Fischer enabled Germany and Europe to integrate more and more peacefully together. However, in doing so the Greens have come to appear to most Germans to have simply become too mainstream for their taste. That is, the Greens today in 2010 often leave voters with a lukewarm taste in their mouths.
This is one reason the SPD splinter party THE LEFT received nearly as many votes (10 %) as the Green/Alliance party did in last Septembers national elections. THE LEFT conveys more youthful liveliness and is now seen as a party that has not yet buckled under realist pressure to give up its ideals. THE LEFT party also called more strongly than even the Green leadership did in 2009 for pulling troops out of Afghanistan this year (--i.e. rather than to increase German and NATO forces).
In short, the Greens seem to be graying after 30 years. German voters are now looking elsewhere for new ideas to some degree. Only by returning to its stronger anti-free market anti-capitalists roots will the Greens be able to regain the trust of many of its more traditional voters in the years ahead.
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