When green political parties first emerged on the political scene
in the 1970s and early 1980s, they presented a radical new vision of society.
Going beyond the single-issue campaigning of environmentalism, green parties
argued not just for some new policies but a whole new approach to politics. Apart
from abandoning all things nuclear immediately, the new green society to be created
had to be based on the principles of non-violence, social justice and grass-roots
democracy. At the time, this seemed to many like a utopian dream. But, less than
two decades hence, green parties have become a regular partner not just in local
and regional but also national government throughout Western Europe, with ‘green’ ministers
taking their place at the cabinet table of major countries such as France, Germany,
Italy, Belgium and Finland.
Have large parts of Western Europe thus turned into
the sort of ‘ecotopia’ that was once described in Ernest Callenbach’s 1975 novel
, The book describes journalist William Weston exploring the state of Ecotopia
that had broken away from the United States and taken over the West Coast in
1999. What would the modern day equivalent to William Weston have found in the
real 1999, visiting the ‘green’ countries of Finland, France, Italy, Germany
and Belgium where ecologists at that time shared power? What have green parties
been doing in these countries, what have they achieved? In four of the these
five countries, the green period in office has now come to an end, raising the
question about the future of green parties after government.
While the role of
contemporary Greens in national government in several West European countries
has attracted most attention, it is important to note that green parties have
also been in government in many Eastern European countries. This experience has
received very little attention in the West, even though, in some cases, the green
period in office was not limited to the immediate years of transition in the
early 1990s but extended to the late 1990s and beyond. At the time of writing
(October 2003), the German Greens are joined by the Greens in Latvia as the only
green parties currently in national government in Europe.
After providing a brief
overview of the European experience of green parties in national government,
this article will look in greater detail at the various cases of government involvement
in the countries of the former Communist bloc, including states that used to
be part of the Soviet Union and have now regained their independence such as
Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, the Ukraine and Georgia. What exactly had happened
here, and are there any lessons from this early experience for the role of Greens
in government in Western Europe? This is followed by more detailed descriptions
of the five West European cases of green government participation at national
level, in chronological order of them entering government: Finland (1995), Italy
(1996), France (1997), Germany (1998) and Belgium (1999). Overall, what difference
have green parties made? Are greens in government to become a regular feature
in coming years, or are we seeing the demise of green politics after relatively
brief stints in authority?
Overview
Over the last 23 years, green parties have
played a role in national government in no fewer than 15 European countries.
Collectively, 44 green government ministers (at cabinet level) have been in government
for 59 years. The various cases of green government involvement at the national
level are listed in Table 1; a more detailed factual overview on a country-by-country
basis is given in the appendix.
Of the 15 countries listed, no fewer than 10
are located in the former Communist bloc dominated by the Soviet Union. Green
parties achieved a high level of credibility in the post-communist transition
countries, and this catapulted greens into government after the collapse of communism.
In some of these countries, green parties faded away after the immediate transition
phase and did not manage to challenge for a role in government again. In other
cases, however, green parties survived and recovered to enter government in the
late 1990s and early years of the present century.
In Western Europe, green parties
did not enter national government until the mid to late 1990s. Involvement in
local and regional government had started much earlier, but the final hurdle
in national politics proved more difficult to take. Finland was first in Western
Europe to have Greens in national government, starting in 1995 and ending with
their decision to leave the government coalition in 2002. To date, Finnish Greens
remain the longest serving green party in government. Finland was followed by
Italy where Greens entered government in 1996 but lost their governmental position
in 2001. In France, the Greens entered government in 1997 but lost their government
role after the defeat of the Left in 2002. The German Greens acceded to power
at national level in 1998 and the red-green coalition was confirmed in office
in 2002. Finally, the Belgian Greens joined the club of green governmental parties
in 1999 as part of a coalition with Socialists and Liberals but suffered a heavy
electoral defeat in 2003, ending their role in government for the time being.
