German Green Party backing Use of Force

With the political right getting influential in Europe since Sept. 11 terrorism, German Green Party on the 17th adopted new political principle accepting the use of armed force.

It was revolutionary change for Green Party, which has insisted anti-war, peace and protection of environment as basic political principles. At the public election in Portugal on the same day, political power was turned over to right-wingers from leftists.

▽Coping with the change after Sept. 11 = Giving examples of massive massacre of Nazi at party convention in Berlin, Green Party adopted a resolution that `it cannot always exclude the use of legal force approved by international law and constitutional state`.

Leader of Green Party Joschka Fischer German Foreign Minister stressed, “it is time for Greens to open eyes to the change of world after Sept. 11 terrorism. It is not Joschka Fischer, but reality that is forcing you to do something. ”

The resolution of the Green Party means the choice of reality after long agony between reality and principle. That could be anticipated from the time when the party, started as an anti-war and environmental activists, plunged into the real politics.

The Green Party occupied 47 seats at 1988 German public election backed by 6.7 percent, and became a line of political power as a partner of the Social Democratic Party for the coalition government, which made a exemplary case solving the problem of `environmental activists` participating in real politics. ` The Green Party, practically, obtained good results in anti-nuclear movement by making agreement to close 19 nuclear power plants in Germany within 20 years, which it claimed as a condition for participating in coalition government.

▽ Decreasing supporting rate and conflicts on policy line = Political reality didn`t leave the Green Party`s `beautiful principles` alone. From when the Green Party, which once claimed for the abolition of NATO, supported NATO`s air raid on Yugoslavia in 1999, it became troubled with serious confusion of identity.

There were serious conflicts last year on political line for the approval of sending German troops after Sept. 11 terrorism and carrying atomic waste across the territory.

The supporting rate also decreased. When Greens lost its color, voters, who supported the Green Party in the last public election, turned their backs. Some forecast that it might not secure 5 percent of seats, minimum number to make a negotiation body in Congress, at coming public election in September.

Jei-Gyoon Park phark@donga.com