Black-green coalition

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A black-green coalition or green-black coalition is - especially in Germany and Austria - a coalition of a Christian Democratic or conservative (with the identification color black) and a green party. Under green leadership, this alliance is also known as the Kiwi coalition and in Austria also as the turquoise-green coalition . When both parties form the coalition as the strongest forces, the joking allusion to the GroKo in Germany is sometimes referred to as a “GrüKo”.

Germany

CDU
CSU
Alliance 90 / The Greens

In Germany , the black-green coalition refers to a government with the participation of one or both union parties ( CDU and CSU ) and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen .

The relationship between the Union and the Greens in the 1980s

There were many conservative environmentalists among the founders of the Green Party, the best-known among them was Herbert Gruhl, a former CDU member of the Bundestag . In 1980, the year the party was founded, the left-wing forces prevailed among the Greens and most of the supporters of the right-wing left the party.

After the Greens entered the Bundestag in 1983, there were considerations in the Union to ban the new party or at least to allow the protection of the constitution to observe it as a potential opponent of the free and democratic basic order .

In 1984 the green member of the state parliament in Baden-Württemberg Rezzo hose was the first prominent politician to speak publicly about being able to imagine a black-green alliance in principle. In 1988 , Prime Minister Lothar Späth was the first CDU top politician to express sympathy for the Greens when he said that the Greens “are the most interesting for me”.

The pizza connection

In view of the great gulf that separated conservative and green politicians in terms of content, rhetorical and habituality in the 1980s, it seemed almost provocative that young politicians from the Union and the Greens met for regular informal talks in a pizzeria in Bonn in the mid-1990s. The so-called " Pizza Connection " included Cem Özdemir , Volker Beck and Matthias Berninger on the part of the Greens and Norbert Röttgen , Peter Altmaier , Kristina Schröder , Ronald Pofalla , Hermann Gröhe , Eckart von Klaeden , Friedbert Pflüger and Andreas on the CDU side Krautscheid .

Municipal alliances since the mid-1990s

Black-green coalitions
in major German cities
1994-1999 Mülheim an der Ruhr
2001-2003 Saarbrücken
2003-2009 Kiel
2003-2004 Cologne
2003-2005 kassel
2004-2009 eat
2004-2009 Duisburg
2006-2016 Frankfurt am Main
2006 Oldenburg
2009-2013 Aachen
2009-2014 Bonn
since 2011 Darmstadt
since 2015 trier
since 2016 Cologne
since 2018 Wuppertal (without its own majority)
since 2020 augsburg

Black-green alliances have existed at the municipal level since the mid-1990s. The first came about in old industrial areas in North Rhine-Westphalia , in which the SPD had a monopoly-like position for a long time. Mülheim an der Ruhr was the first North Rhine-Westphalian city in 1994, in which an alliance of CDU and Greens ruled until 1999. At times there were more black-green than red-green coalitions at the municipal level in North Rhine-Westphalia.

At the district level, the longest existing black-green collaboration can be found in the Hessian district of Marburg-Biedenkopf. This began in 2001 (with the participation of the FDP and Free Citizens) and was renewed in 2006 and 2011 (since 2011 without FDP participation).

The largest city with a black-green coalition is currently Cologne . Saarbrücken was the first state capital with a black-green coalition (2001 to 2003). There was also a black-green coalition in the Schleswig-Holstein state capital Kiel from 2003 to 2009. In Oldenburg, a black-green coalition burst after the local elections in 2006 after only seven weeks after the CDU had voted in the council against the coalition agreement to build a controversial shopping center next to the Oldenburg Castle. Previously, the CDU candidate for the mayor's office, Gerd Schwandner ( independent ), was elected in the second ballot by the support of the Greens.

In Freiburg im Breisgau , the Greens and Young Freiburg together make up the largest parliamentary group in the local council and, until June 2018, the Lord Mayor Dieter Salomon . Cooperation with the CDU parliamentary group is often problem-free. The best-known joint project nationwide is likely to be the failed sale of the municipal housing company Stadtbau GmbH . This was clearly rejected by 70 percent of the votes cast in Freiburg's first successful referendum.

Jamaica alliances between the CDU, the Greens and the FDP are also more frequently represented at the municipal level .

State level

Approximations

In the run-up to the state elections in Baden-Württemberg in 1992 , then Prime Minister Erwin Teufel had declared that he also wanted to negotiate a coalition with the Baden-Württemberg Greens , but then broke the exploratory talks with the party.

In the run-up to the state elections in Thuringia in 2004 , there was speculation about a coalition between the CDU and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen. According to an Emnid poll, 69 percent of the Greens and 48 percent of the CDU voters in this country would have welcomed such a coalition. Even before the state elections in Saxony in 2004 , black-green was not excluded from the outset.

Before the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2005 , the top candidates Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU) and Bärbel Höhn (Greens) showed up at several photo sessions. Together they declared: "Black-green is in the air". Rüttgers then, despite an emerging narrow majority, opted for a camp election campaign and a coalition with the FDP .

The Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Günther Oettinger (CDU) did not rule out black and green for his federal state, whose Greens are considered to be more conservative , before the 2006 state elections . Although the CDU was able to continue the coalition with the FDP with a large majority after the state elections, serious talks began with the Greens, who had become the third strongest party. A few days later, however, the CDU decided to continue the black-yellow coalition. The Green parliamentary group leader in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament, Winfried Kretschmann , sought a black-green alliance for the time after the state elections in 2011 . However , the election campaign became polarized in the wake of the protests against Stuttgart 21, which have increased since 2010, and the extension of the service life of German nuclear power plants decided by the black and yellow federal government . In the state elections in 2011 , there was a green-red majority , which Winfried Kretschmann elected as the first green Prime Minister.

In the state of Bremen , Senator for Construction Jens Eckhoff (CDU) brought black-green into the discussion for the time after the state elections in 2007 .

The first black-green state government in Hamburg (2008-2010)

Since the CDU won an absolute majority in Hamburg after the 2004 election, there was no need to form a coalition. However, the CDU and GAL formed black-green coalitions at the district level. The former Green Senator from Hamburg, Krista Sager , announced in September 2007 that black and green would be a very realistic option after the Hamburg state election in February 2008. At their state party congress in October 2007, the Hamburg Greens kept the black-green option open and at the same time ruled out any cooperation with the Left Party . In the 2008 election campaign, Mayor Ole von Beust also preferred this coalition to a coalition with the SPD , in the event that the absolute majority of the CDU would not be confirmed in the election. In the general election on February 24, 2008 , the CDU and GAL received an absolute majority , so that the formation of a black-green coalition was mathematically possible. In the meantime, both parties decided to start coalition negotiations. On April 16, 2008 in Hamburg between the CDU and GAL the fundamental agreement of the parliamentary group leaders on a coalition agreement was publicly announced. On April 27, 2008 the base of GAL Hamburg approved the coalition agreement. With the approval of the CDU state party conference on April 28, the first black-green coalition in Hamburg was decided by both parties. The black and green Senate of Beust III was in office from May 7, 2008, before being replaced by the Ahlhaus Senate on August 25, 2010 after the withdrawal of Beusts .

On November 28, 2010, the Greens announced that they would leave the coalition. This broke the first black-green alliance at the state level. In the subsequent elections in 2011 , the CDU lost almost half of its 2008 vote with a minus of 20.7 percentage points, while the Greens were able to gain slightly. The SPD gained an absolute majority.

Black-green coalition in the State Welfare Association of Hesse

Already in 2005 there was a black-green cooperation with the participation of the FDP ( Jamaica Alliance ) in the State Welfare Association of Hesse , the "Hessian Social Parliament" . When the Greens gained strength after the Hessian local elections in 2011, the FDP left the alliance and after the conclusion of a black-green coalition agreement, Andreas Jürgens , Member of the State Parliament of the Greens , was elected full-time First Alderman.

Coalition in Hesse (since January 2014)

Bouffier (CDU) and Al-Wazir (Greens) present the black-green coalition agreement .
Appointment of the ministers of the black-green cabinet Bouffier II

The state elections in Hesse in 2013 took place on the same day as the 2013 federal election . Volker Bouffier (CDU), Hessian Prime Minister since September 2010, was the CDU's top candidate . The CDU received 38.3% (+1.1 percentage point); the SPD 30.7 (+7.0 percentage points), the FDP 5.0 (−11.2 percentage points), the Greens 11.2 (−2.2 percentage points), the Left 5.2%.

The previous black-yellow coalition no longer had a majority of seats in the Hessian state parliament . In the exploratory talks after the state elections, possibilities for a grand coalition or a red-red-green coalition were explored. After four exploratory talks between the negotiators Bouffier and Tarek Al-Wazir (Greens), on November 22, 2013, the CDU offered the Greens the opportunity to start the first black-green coalition negotiations in a German country. It did so even though the SPD had signaled its readiness for a grand coalition (which was emerging at the federal level at the same time).

This offer took the party council of the Green Party with a majority of 51: 6 to cast. On the night of December 16-17, 2013, the CDU and the Greens agreed on a coalition agreement entitled Shaping Reliably - Opening Perspectives . After the CDU state committee had unanimously approved the coalition agreement on December 21, 2013, the members of the Greens voted in favor of the coalition agreement with 74.24 percent at a state party congress on the same day.

On January 18, 2014, Volker Bouffier was re-elected as Prime Minister with 62 votes in the constituent session of the Hessian state parliament and thus received one vote more than the CDU and the Greens united. The Bouffier II cabinet was then appointed and sworn in.

Thanks to the Greens' increase in votes, the black-green state government achieved a one-vote majority in the state elections in Hesse in 2018, despite the CDU's loss of votes. This was the first time that a black-green coalition above the municipal level existed for an entire legislative period and was even confirmed.

After the first exploratory talks, alternatives to a continuation of black-green were rejected by at least one potential coalition partner. Therefore, immediately after the final election results were announced, the state boards of the CDU and the Greens unanimously decided to start coalition negotiations to extend the cooperation for a further five years. After successful negotiations, the second black-green coalition agreement was signed in Hesse in December 2018. The Bouffier III cabinet was sworn in on January 18, 2019 .

Coalition in Baden-Württemberg (since May 2016)

After the state elections in 2016 , in which the previous green-red state government lost its majority and the CDU was unable to achieve a majority in a three-party alliance with the FDP and SPD, the Greens and the CDU agreed after exploratory talks to start coalition talks. This ended successfully and on May 2, 2016, the green-black coalition agreement was presented to the public. The Kretschmann II cabinet is the first coalition government between the Greens and the CDU under the leadership of the Greens at state level. On May 12, 2016, the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg elected Kretschmann as Prime Minister.

Black-green at the federal level

For the Greens, federal politicians such as Jerzy Montag , Werner Schulz and Reinhard Loske advocate black-green as a further possibility for green participation in the federal government.

Before the Bundestag election in 2005 , the then Federal Foreign Minister and Green Party politician Joschka Fischer Schwarz-Grün rejected: "I don't see how I should agree on a common policy with Angela Merkel and Mr. Kirchhof " (quote from September 6, 2005). Nevertheless, he advised his party to open up "to the bourgeois parties too, but very carefully" after the polls.

After the federal election in 2005, a black-green coalition did not achieve a majority on its own, but only together with the FDP. This constellation, which was first up for debate at the federal level after the federal election, is known as the Jamaica coalition or Schwampel (for: black traffic light). The CDU chairwoman Angela Merkel, who in her book Mein Weg Schwarz-Grün had given a rejection at the federal level ("No more in this decade."), Showed after the federal election she was ready to negotiate a Jamaica coalition.

The Green Bundestag Vice- President Katrin Göring-Eckardt campaigned in 2007 for a Jamaica coalition in which the Greens could function as an “ecological-social conscience”. The former green financial expert Oswald Metzger was also considered an advocate for a cooperation between the Union and the Greens. However, he resigned from the Bündnis 90 / Greens party in November 2007 and joined the CDU in March 2008, causing the black-green project to lose a prominent advocate on the part of the Greens.

Following the 2017 federal election and after the SPD initially rejected any further participation in government with regard to the result, exploratory talks took place at the federal level for the first time on the possibility of a Jamaica coalition . The negotiations failed after four weeks due to the withdrawal of the FDP.

Arguments for and against black-green

Compared to other constellations, this model is still quite young, as both camps have been reluctant to work together for a long time. However, there are some votes in both camps for a black-green coalition, also at the level of the regional states or the federal government. This goes hand in hand with a socio-economic rapprochement between the electoral milieus of the Greens and the Union (“New Bourgeoisie”), but this is not necessarily associated with political rapprochement. As common values and concerns which are the integrity of creation , subsidiarity , decentralization , self-responsibility of the individual, sound finances, a healthy home and a healthy environment called.

The Union parties are looking for a strategic coalition alternative. In recent years the SPD has formed coalitions in the federal or state levels with the CDU ( red-black coalition ), with the FDP ( social liberal coalition ), with the Greens ( red-green coalition ) and the PDS or Left Party ( red-red coalition) ) as well as a minority government with PDS tolerance ( Magdeburg model ), traffic light coalitions (with the FDP and the Greens) and in Schleswig-Holstein a coalition with the Greens and SSW , the so-called Danes traffic light . The SPD has thus implemented seven coalition variants. The CDU, on the other hand, are currently only black-yellow and black-red as coalition options. The then CDU top candidate and NRW Prime Minister Jürgen Rüttgers, who was in power from 2005 to 2010, declared his temporary flirtation with the Greens before the NRW state elections in 2005 by saying that having several coalition options opened up "a great deal of freedom" for me.

With the tried and tested red-green coalition, possible alliances with the involvement of the Left Party ( red-red-green coalition ) and the traffic light coalition, which is rarely realized, the Greens have a broader range of coalition options. However, all of these alliances are necessarily linked to the participation of the SPD in government. Alone the realistic possibility of a black-green coalition strengthens the negotiating position of the Greens vis-à-vis the SPD. There is another argument in favor of the Greens in favor of black-green: where the Left Party is strong, an alliance of SPD and Greens has little chance of entering into a coalition without a third party, i.e. the Left or the FDP.

With the black-and-yellow federal government's black-and-yellow federal government's heavily opposed extension of the service life of German nuclear power plants in autumn 2010, the Union and the Greens moved apart again. The Union identified the Greens as the new main opponent from the end of 2010. Because of the rejection of various major projects such as the Stuttgart 21 station renovation or the Munich Olympic bid , politicians from the CDU, CSU and FDP repeatedly referred to Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen as an “opposition party” during the election campaign. In November 2010, Angela Merkel declared a black-green alliance to be a "pipe dream".

After the nuclear phase-out decided in June 2011 due to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima , this point of dispute between the Union parties and the Greens has been resolved.

Austria

ÖVP
The Greens - The Green Alternative

In Austria, black-green refers to a coalition between the ÖVP and the Greens . After the party's name was changed to Sebastian Kurz in 2017, the term turquoise-green is also used , but currently often only for the federal level.

Federal level

At the federal level, there were lengthy government negotiations between the ÖVP and the Greens after the 2002 National Council election . ÖVP Chancellor Schüssel was involved in the FPÖ coalition at the time . The coalition talks failed, not least because of disagreements on social and pension issues, tuition fees and military armament projects. In the end, Schüssel decided to continue working with the ailing partner (II. Cabinet Schüssel) in order to be able to freely implement his government intentions.

Nevertheless, the Greens have since been considered a possible government partner of the ÖVP and are therefore no longer exclusively tied to the SPÖ as a majority of the left. The green top candidate Ulrike Lunacek , however, ruled out a coalition with the short-term ÖVP after the 2017 National Council election due to the right-wing course of the short ÖVP .

After the 2019 election , the turquoise-green coalition was negotiated between Kurz and Werner Kogler . On January 1, 2020, they jointly announced that they had reached an agreement. The Federal Congress of the Greens voted on January 4, 2020 with 93.18 percent of the votes for the party's first participation in government. The Federal Government Kurz II was sworn in as a turquoise-green coalition on January 7th.

State level

Governing parties 2013 (distribution of seats in the state parliament )
Ruling parties 2016
Ruling parties 2018

The Greens first participated in government at state level after the 1994 election in Tyrol. Here worked Eva Lichtenberger (for the Green Alternative Tyrol  GAT) under ÖVP Governor Weingartner ( Government Weingartner II ) until 1999. Since by then but still by proportional system was distributed was not a coalition in the sense of the term. When the coalition system was switched to in 1999, the Greens were no longer represented in the government with roughly the same share of the votes.

Since the state elections in Upper Austria in 2003, there has been government cooperation based on a coalition agreement ( state government Pühringer III ) between black and green at state level, the first of its kind at sub-national level in Europe. On the occasion of its three-year existence, both the ÖVP and the Greens praised the cooperation. After the state elections in 2009 , in which both parties were able to increase their share of the vote, the coalition was continued. After the state elections in 2015 , government cooperation could not be continued. Due to the heavy losses of the ÖVP and only slight gains by the Greens, the two parties together still had a majority in the provincial government, which was composed according to the proportional system, but no longer had any in the Upper Austrian state parliament .

The state elections in Tyrol in 2013 resulted in a black-green coalition, governed by Governor Günther Platter (ÖVP) and Ingrid Felipe (Greens). Since the state elections in Vorarlberg in 2014 , black and green have also governed there. In Salzburg there has been a participation since 2013 , initially as black-green-yellow with the Stronach team , since its departure from the coalition in 2015 only black-green, from 2018 as black-green-pink with the NEOS . The Greens were also represented in Carinthia from 2013-2018 , under the SPÖ government as Red-Black-Green .

Community level

Black-green alliances rule in several larger and smaller cities in Austria, including in Bregenz , Klosterneuburg , Mödling , Baden near Vienna and from 2008 to 2012 in Graz .

Government alliances of conservative and green parties in other countries

In the Czech Republic , a coalition ( government Mirek Topolánek II ) ruled from the beginning of 2007 to spring 2009, consisting of the conservative Democratic Citizens Party , the Christian Democratic KDU-ČSL and the green Strana Zelených .

In Ireland , the Green Party ruled from June 2007 together with the liberal-conservative-populist Fianna Fáil and the liberal Progressive Democrats . In the new election in February 2011 , it lost all seats, while Fianna Fáil did not become the strongest party for the first time since 1932 and lost 51 of its 71 seats. The Irish economic crisis was primarily blamed for the poor performance of the governing parties. The Christian Democratic Fine Gael and the Social Democratic Irish Labor Party then formed a government.

In Finland reigned from 2007 to 2011, a coalition of the Center Party , the Conservatives , the Greens Federation and the Swedish People's Party .

literature

To Germany:

To Austria:

  • Harald Mahrer (ed.): 10 years black-green. A speculation , Julius Raab Foundation - Edition Noir, Vienna 2013 (volume of essays on the question of what would have happened if the black-green coalition had come about in 2003)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ New political color games , FAZ.net from March 16, 2016
  2. ^ Kiwi coalition: Much speaks for green-black in the country , WAZ.de from March 16, 2016
  3. ^ Sebastian Fischer: Next government: Caution GrüKo . In: Spiegel Online . August 20, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed August 21, 2019]).
  4. ^ A b Franz Walter: Yellow or Green? Bielefeld 2010, p. 95.
  5. ↑ Volker Kronenberg , Christoph Weckenbrock: How opposites became options. In: black-green. The Debate , ed. by Volker Kronenberg and Christoph Weckenbrock, Wiesbaden 2011, p. 16.
  6. ↑ Volker Kronenberg , Christoph Weckenbrock: How opposites became options. In: black-green. The Debate , ed. by Volker Kronenberg and Christoph Weckenbrock, Wiesbaden 2011, p. 15.
  7. ^ Coalition agreement 2001 CDU, GRÜNE, FDP and Free Citizens in the Marburg-Biedendkopf district
  8. ^ Coalition agreement 2006 CDU, GRÜNE, FDP and FWG Marburg-Biedenkopf
  9. ↑ Municipalities as pioneers: black-green is coming, the stocks are dwindling , in the FAZ, January 18, 2014; accessed on June 11, 2017.
  10. ↑ Greens rely on the CDU. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on June 11, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.suedkurier.de
  11. ↑ tagesschau.de: Von Beust wants to dare “the black-green experiment”. ( Memento from September 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Frank Pergande: Merkel: No signal for the federal government. In: FAZ. April 18, 2008.
  13. ↑ Black and green failed. n-tv.de, November 28, 2010.
  14. ↑ PR of the LWV Hessen 2005 ( Memento from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ http://www.gruene-lwv-hessen.de/de/allgemein/koalitionsvereinigung/ black-green coalition agreement
  16. ↑ gruene-hessen.de: black-green coalition agreement for Hesse 2014 to 2019
  17. ↑ Volker Bouffier: "I am pleased about the clear approval of the state members' assembly of ALLIANCE 90 / THE GREENS for the coalition agreement with the CDU Hessen"
  18. ↑ Volker Bouffier: The CDU Hessen offers BÜNDNIS 90 / DIE GRÜNEN coalition negotiations to CDU Hessen November 16, 2018
  19. ↑ BÜNDNIS 90 / DIE GRÜNEN Hessen decide to start coalition negotiations with the CDU Hessen Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen on November 17, 2018
  20. ^ Draft of the coalition agreement ( Memento of May 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on www.cdu.de, May 2, 2016
  21. ↑ FAZ.net
  22. ↑ Interview in the taz with Joschka Fischer
  23. ↑ Black and green fantasies. In: The time. February 26, 2004.
  24. ↑ a b c How Merkel's phantom becomes a dream alliance. on: spiegel.de , January 10, 2011.
  25. ^ Austria after the election - Greens offer themselves to the conservative ÖVP as coalition partners , Markus Salzmann, World Socialist Web Site , wsws.org, December 31, 2002.
  26. ↑ Lunacek on oe24.TV: . July 19, 2017 ( oe24.at [accessed July 19, 2017]).
  27. ↑ a b c d The red participation in Upper Austria, the yellow participation (Team Stronach) in Carinthia and the red and yellow participation in Lower Austria are nominal and based on the proportional system . The “coalition” in these state parliaments is an unofficial agreement for cooperation between some of the governing parties.
  28. ^ Franz Schausberger: The controversial turn . Austria 2000-2006. Ed .: Robert Kriechbaumer; Franz Schausberger. 1st edition. Böhlau, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-205-78745-7 , pp. 96 .
  29. ↑ The Durable Politics Experiment. OÖ Nachrichten> Typisch Oberösterreich, August 13, 2012;
    Ten years of the black-green coalition , ooe.orf.at, October 19, 2013.
  30. ↑ Schwarz-Grün presents program , derStandard.at, October 7, 2014.
  31. ^ Coalition negotiations in Salzburg have started. In: Salzburger Nachrichten. May 23, 2013.
  32. ^ Radio Prague: "Crisis over: New Czech government thanks to dissenters in office" ( Memento from September 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  33. ↑ Black and green fantasies prove a missed opportunity. Review, Conrad Seidl in derStandard.at, February 14, 2013.