Between Ecotopia and Disillusionment: Green Parties in European Government 1990-2003
By Wolfgang Rüdig, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
Introduction
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.
