VZCZCXRO9182
OO RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHLZ
DE RUEHFT #3135/01 3410933
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O 070933Z DEC 09
FM AMCONSUL FRANKFURT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2679
INFO RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 FRANKFURT 003135 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL GM
SUBJECT: Green Party in Southwest Germany Seeks the Center, New 
Alliances 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY:  The Green Party used its recent conventions in Hesse 
and Baden-Wuerttemberg (B-W)on November 14 and 21 respectively to 
discuss a political strategy for attracting centrist voters from the 
Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Christian Democratic Union 
(CDU). Despite coming in fourth place in the parliamentary election, 
the Baden-Wuerttemberg Greens were upbeat about their chances, 
although outstanding questions remained about the party's future 
left-of-center or right-of-center position on Germany's political 
spectrum.  The Hesse Greens - facing a similar dilemma - spoke out 
strongly against attempts to align the national Green Party with the 
forces of the political left.  End Summary 
 
 
GREEN SUCCESS IN GERMAN SOUTHWEST BUILT ON SOLID FOUNDATION 
---------------------------- 
¶2. The Green Party had their best results in Southwest Germany in 
the September 27 parliamentary election. They earned 13.9% in 
Baden-Wuerttemberg, 9.7% in Rheinland-Pfalz, and 12% in Hesse.  In 
Saarland, the Greens scored only 6.8%, but were instrumental in 
enabling the formation of the first state "Jamaica" (CDU-Green-FDP) 
coalition government.  The Green Party has long enjoyed success on a 
communal level in Baden-Wuerttemberg with a series of Green Party 
mayors in key cities: Konstanz (Lord Mayor Horst Frank), Freiburg 
(Dieter Salomon), and Tuebingen (Boris Palmer).   In June 2009, the 
Stuttgart Greens took over the Stuttgart City Council ending 38 
years of CDU dominance.  Stuttgart is the only State capital where 
the Greens make up the largest caucus in the city council.  In 
Hesse, the home of the first Green minister, Joschka Fischer, the 
Greens have a similar strong base with the party winning 13.7% of 
votes in the 2009 state election.  Frankfurt has a successful 
CDU-Green (black-green) governing coalition, which both parties have 
said they would be willing to continue after the communal elections 
in 2011. 
 
 
BADEN-WUERTTEMBERG: LOOKING FOR CENTRIST VOTERS 
------------------------------ 
¶3. Even before the parliamentary election on September 27 and the 
formation of Saarland's Jamaica coalition government, some Green 
Party politicians in Baden-Wuerttemberg realized that their success 
lay in winning centrist voters from other parties.  "We are the new 
political middle," Stuttgart City Council Green Caucus Chief 
Wolfgang Woelfle said after his party won last June.  Andreas 
Reissig, Chief of the Stuttgart SPD, noted that the Greens won the 
Stuttgart City Council because they were able to win votes from 
moderate CDU members who will be difficult to win back for the CDU. 
Reissig also hypothesized that some former FDP voters are now voting 
Green, which B-W FDP Spokesman Jan Havlik confirmed.  Freiburg Lord 
Mayor Salomon publicly called on his party to discard the idea of 
being a "leftist" party.  According to Salomon, the Greens need to 
normalize their relationship with the FDP. (Salomon is up for 
reelection in 2010 and has the support of the local CDU and 
Greens.) 
 
¶4.  Under B-W Minister-President Oettinger (CDU), open discussions 
about a future CDU-Green coalition in the state flourished. 
However, with Oettinger's future move to Brussels as EU Commissioner 
and his successor Stephan Mappus set to take over the B-W CDU, this 
prospect now seems unlikely.  At their state convention on November 
21, the Green leadership heavily attacked Mappus for his 
archconservative course on family, integration and energy policies. 
Green leaders Silke Krebs and Chris Kuehn rejected any possibility 
of cooperating with him.  Speaking at the convention, Greens Party 
Chief Cem Oezdemir also buried all hopes for a black/green alliance, 
calling Mappus "an impertinence" for every Green.  However, the B-W 
Greens want to continue their current course and would like to 
become the second strongest party in the B-W state parliament after 
2011, hoping to even surpass the dwindling SPD. 
 
 
HESSE GREENS CHART PRAGMATIC APPROACH 
------------------------------ 
¶5.  At their recent party convention, the Hesse Greens charted a 
course for pragmatism.  Olaf Cunitz, Green caucus chief of the 
Frankfurt Black-Green (CDU-Green) governing coalition, said the 
choice for the Green Party will be "to participate in the government 
with ideas or to be in the opposition with ideology."  Cunitz argues 
that the days of the Greens winning former SPD voters is over and 
that the party is now gaining votes from the FDP (young urban 
academics, small families with double incomes.)  The 
Secretary-General of the Hesse Greens, Kai Klose, critiqued the 
federal Green Party executive board further saying that if the 
federal chairs, Renate Kuenast and Juergen Trittin, do not take the 
lead in the necessary political reorientation of the Greens, the 
Hesse Green Party will lead an active opposition against them, 
together with the B-W Greens.  At their party convention, the 
executive board of the Hesse Greens - under the leadership of their 
chair Tarek al-Wazir - introduced a motion to vote on a new 
definition of the Greens.  The motion, which passed, positioned the 
 
FRANKFURT 00003135  002 OF 002 
 
 
Greens in the "left-of-center" of Germany's political landscape, 
thus placing them in direct competition for voters with the Social 
Democrats. 
 
¶6. COMMENT:  In the post-Saarland Jamaica coalition government era, 
the Green parties in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hesse have indicated 
they are ready to pursue similar alliances with untraditional 
governing partners.  Should the Greens federal executive board 
decide to drift to the left as a reaction to the new CDU/FDP 
coalition in Berlin, the national party could face serious 
resistance from state party organizations.  It is yet to be seen how 
the national Green Party will manage discontent at the state level 
over the future political direction of the party. END COMMENT. 
 
¶7.  This cable was coordinated with Embassy Berlin. 
 
 
ALFORD