Coalition Deal in Danger at Green Party Congress

The Greens' 20th party conference, during which delegates will decide on the recently-formulated coalition agreement with the Social Democrats, is due to be overshadowed by a debate over a nuclear plant.

The plant was the reason for intense debate during the two weeks of marathon negotiations between leaders of the red-green coalition, which produced their final proposal for the upcoming legislative period to the public on Wednesday.

The agreement must now be passed by party delegates of both Green and Social Democratic parties in the coming days. Members, and in particular leaders, of both parties now fear the debate over the aging nuclear plant could prove a stumbling block to the coalition deal, which is up for a vote at the Green Party conference in Bremen this Friday.

Germany's oldest nuclear plant

The discussion, which is said to have raged for over seven hours between red-green leaders last week, focuses on the nuclear power plant in Obrigheim, Germany's oldest reactor.

In the run-up to the government's 2000 deal on atomic energy plants, which aims to end the production of nuclear energy in the next 35 years and focuses on increasing renewable energies, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is said to have promised Obrigheim's owners that the plant could stay on line six years longer than originally planned.

People involved in the deal making at the time say that Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin was aware of the trade off with the plant owners. But as the current discussions show, the Green minister obviously refrained from passing on the information. When the news of the plant’s extension came out during the coalition pact negotiations, the Greens were upset. "The coalition was on the edge of disaster over the plant," Green leader Fritz Kuhn, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Unhappy compromise

After much debate, and seven hours later, the parties finally decided on a compromise: Obrigheim was to be granted a prolonged lifeline of two years. In return, however, the 22-year-old reactor Phillippsburg I would be shut down a year earlier than scheduled. It was a compromise which, according to Trittin, would not lead to the production of more nuclear electricity than originally planned.

Amid fears that the subject would dominate the Green's party conference, the minister said it would not be the central issue at the congress. Instead, the coalition agreement would be the most important topic, he told German radio on Friday.

Optimism despite debate

Trittin expects a "solid majority" in the vote for the coalition deal.

The left-leaning Green member of parliament Winfried Hermann told German radio he would vote for Gerhard Schröder despite the dispute. The compromise on two, instead of five or six more years, for Obrigheim was not a reason to endanger the continuation of the red-green coalition, he said. However, he did admit he was not so sure how the delegates would react.

Green leader Krista Sager voiced concern over the "painful compromise," saying the SPD had even risked collapse of the coalition. Despite the compromise which she said the Greens had pushed through, the outcome was still "rubbish," she told the left-leaning daily, the Tageszeitung. Sager also expects much debate over the issue at the conference, but does not expect delegates to go as far as to risk the coalition agreement over the issue.

More decisions

Both sides have braced themselves for intense discussions at Friday's party conference, but they are optimistic the party basis will give the red-green government the green light.

However, Green leaders fear delegates, unhappy with the compromise over Obrigheim, may try to get back on another major issue up for decision on Friday: Both Green leaders Fritz Kuhn and Claudia Roth have expressed the wish to keep their parliamentary seats despite their positions in the Greens' executive board – a step which breaks Green party regulations. For this, they will need the delegates support - and more important, their vote on Friday.