30 January 2019updated 09 Sep 2021 4:10pm

The strange rebirth of the German Greens

In a divided country, the party has surged into second place with poll ratings of 20 per cent. But its centrist programme would leave the fundamentals of economic and social policy unchanged.

By Loren Balhorn

Leaders of the German Green party, Robert Habeck (R) and Annalena Baerbock react on stage during the party's congress in Leipzig, eastern Germany, on November 10, 2018, where delegates elect candidates for next years European elections. (Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP) (Photo credit should read TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images)

In Germany’s increasingly fractured political landscape, the Greens are ascendant. Having once struggled to surpass 10 per cent in national opinion polls, the party is now polling at twice that figure, putting it in second place behind Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Under the leadership of the tepidly charismatic duo of Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, the re-energised party has vowed to “renew Europe’s promise” and defend democratic society. Forty years after they were founded as a haven for former leftist radicals embracing electoral politics, the Greens appear poised to complete their long transformation into a reliable party of government (they held national office for the first time alongside the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 1998-2005).