The face of the new "green" Germany

The representatives of the German society´s "new core" in action.  The "choir" towards the end is worth listening to!

Charles Hawley, editor of Der Spiegel, thinks that the success of the Green party in last weekend´s two state elections has resulted in a "profound shift" in the country´s political landscape:

The equation seems simple. A nuclear disaster in Japan combined with widespread skepticism of atomic energy in Germany equals record-setting election successes for the anti-nuclear Green Party in two state elections on Sunday.

The story line is certainly tempting. Germany has, after all, reacted with notable concern to the ongoing calamity at the Fukushima nuclear facility on Japan's east coast. And the resulting nuclear policy about-face by Chancellor Angela Merkel's government in Berlin has looked anything but composed and reasoned.

But Germany's Greens had been building toward ballot box success for months prior to the events in Japan. In many states, the party stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD). In many others, their poll numbers are rising.

Indeed, far from being a one-off, the party's 24.2 percent result in Baden-Württemberg and the 15.4 percent it received in Rhineland-Palatinate on Sunday marks the beginning of a new era for Germany's political landscape. The Greens have benefited mightily from ongoing exasperation with the tradition-laden parties CDU and SPD -- and the erstwhile rebellious environmentalists have now become a fixture in the country's political center.

"In the cultural debates which have been waged in recent years, whether they focused on lifestyle issues, questions of values or nuclear energy, the center-left and the Greens have the support of society's new core," writes political analyst Franz Walter in a Monday contribution for SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Culturally, society's new center has distanced itself step by step from the Christian Democratic and conservative-traditional world view.

PS

One must sincerely hope that Hawley is wrong. Already hitherto, the greens have had a disastrous influence in the political and economical development of the most important country in the European Union. If the greens really now have the support of the "society´s new core" in Germany, it does not bode well for Germany, the EU or NATO.