BERLIN: The Green party, one of Germany's main political parties, has elected the son of Turkish immigrants to its top political post, the first time any party here has chosen a leader with an immigrant background. The election Saturday of Cem Ozdemir, 42, born in southern Germany of parents who had come from Turkey to work as "Gastarbeiter," or guest workers, during the 1960s, marks a major turning point not only for the opposition Greens, but also for the country as a whole. Even though more than 2.6 million Turks live in Germany, accounting for 3 percent of the population, few have managed to make it to the higher ranks of the professions, including politics and the civil service. But with a conservative party that had chosen Angela Merkel to run as chancellor in 2005 - a successful gambit - and now an ethnic Turk at the helm of an influential party, it appears that German society is slowly breaking with the past, when women were inconspicuous in public and immigrants' voices were seldom heard. Ozdemir, a social scientist who studied at the Lutheran College for Social Sciences in Reutlingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg, was elected as a Greens legislator to the lower house of Parliament, the Bundestag, in 1994, the first time anyone with a Turkish background had won such a mandate. He moved to the European Parliament in 2004 after he was forced to give up his parliamentary seat for using his publicly paid airline miles for private use.
BERLIN: The Green party, one of Germany's main political parties, has elected the son of Turkish immigrants to its top political post, the first time any party here has chosen a leader with an immigrant background.
The election Saturday of Cem Ozdemir, 42, born in southern Germany of parents who had come from Turkey to work as "Gastarbeiter," or guest workers, during the 1960s, marks a major turning point not only for the opposition Greens, but also for the country as a whole.
Even though more than 2.6 million Turks live in Germany, accounting for 3 percent of the population, few have managed to make it to the higher ranks of the professions, including politics and the civil service.
But with a conservative party that had chosen Angela Merkel to run as chancellor in 2005 - a successful gambit - and now an ethnic Turk at the helm of an influential party, it appears that German society is slowly breaking with the past, when women were inconspicuous in public and immigrants' voices were seldom heard.
Ozdemir, a social scientist who studied at the Lutheran College for Social Sciences in Reutlingen in the state of Baden-Württemberg, was elected as a Greens legislator to the lower house of Parliament, the Bundestag, in 1994, the first time anyone with a Turkish background had won such a mandate. He moved to the European Parliament in 2004 after he was forced to give up his parliamentary seat for using his publicly paid airline miles for private use.
Oh, btw, Pierre Bérégovoy, the former PM, was the son of poor Ukrainian immigrants; I'm pretty sure that the slavs were treated as badly as the Arabs are today in 1920s France (in fact, Le Canard Enchainé loves to show the odd headline from back then about how these people were coming with their religion, were ticking togzther and not integrating, etc...) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
the first time any party here has chosen a leader with an immigrant background.
Congratulations to Herr Ozdemir and to the Grünen.
I am guessing that the Greens are still not a "mainstream party" in Germany?
But the following passage really surprised me:
Ralf Fücks, director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which is affiliated with the Green party, said, "In some ways we have more in common with the conservatives when it comes to human rights and values, which Merkel has paid particular attention to." The Greens and the conservatives also support economic reform, and Merkel has made environmental issues a central theme of her party. But the sticking point for any cooperation, as Fücks acknowledged, is nuclear power. Greens in Germany pick son of Turks as leader - International Herald Tribune
Ralf Fücks, director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which is affiliated with the Green party, said, "In some ways we have more in common with the conservatives when it comes to human rights and values, which Merkel has paid particular attention to."
The Greens and the conservatives also support economic reform, and Merkel has made environmental issues a central theme of her party. But the sticking point for any cooperation, as Fücks acknowledged, is nuclear power.
Greens in Germany pick son of Turks as leader - International Herald Tribune
Aside from nuclear power and deploying German soldiers abroad (which, though, even the Realo wing of the Greens apparently support, according to this article), aren't there other issues that make a Green-Conservative alliance... strange? Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
On the other hand, this 'more in common with the conservatives' is mainly in scolding China and Russia, which is not a really deep basis.
The Greens are an established party in Germany by now, in the Bundestag since 1983, although they tend to get only around eight percent of the vote.
Earlier Özdemir coverage on ET:
Coup among the German Social Democrats | DoDo on Mon Sep 8th, 2008:
Meanwhile, leadership choice in another German party. The German Greens (the most influential Green party world-wide) don't have a single boss, and there is still significant party democracy. Of the top, there are two - to keep peace in the party, one from the "Fundi" wing, and one from the former "Realo" wing. The latter has been ominously renamed the "Reformer" wing. Renewal of the post is coming. The fundis want to re-nominate the incumbent, Claudia Roth. Among the 'Reformers', there were two candidates, but 48-year-old Volker Ratzmann withdrew: his partner in life (another Green MP) is expecting their first child, and he chose father duties over a stronger political role. So the choice of MEP Cem Özdemir is now almost certain:
The German Greens (the most influential Green party world-wide) don't have a single boss, and there is still significant party democracy. Of the top, there are two - to keep peace in the party, one from the "Fundi" wing, and one from the former "Realo" wing. The latter has been ominously renamed the "Reformer" wing.
Renewal of the post is coming. The fundis want to re-nominate the incumbent, Claudia Roth. Among the 'Reformers', there were two candidates, but 48-year-old Volker Ratzmann withdrew: his partner in life (another Green MP) is expecting their first child, and he chose father duties over a stronger political role. So the choice of MEP Cem Özdemir is now almost certain:
nanne: There is a conservative / green coalition in Hamburg, where the conservative party is, well, somewhat more cosmopolitan.
Yes, the article mentions that:
With new leaders in place, the Greens are now turning their attention to federal elections next September. Some observers are asking whether the Greens, along with the pro-business Free Democrats, might win enough votes to become junior partners for Merkel's conservative bloc. Such an idea was treated with ridicule until recently. But in February, the Christian Democrats chose to share power with the Greens in the port city of Hamburg. So far, the coalition, the first of its kind on the state level, has been working effectively, serving as a litmus test for other states. Greens in Germany pick son of Turks as leader - International Herald Tribune
Such an idea was treated with ridicule until recently. But in February, the Christian Democrats chose to share power with the Greens in the port city of Hamburg. So far, the coalition, the first of its kind on the state level, has been working effectively, serving as a litmus test for other states.
The Greens ... also support economic reform
That's a stretch. It is true that the Greens carried Schröder's Agenda 2010 with less trouble than the left of the SPD, and that they are not at all unfriendly to market-pased solutions (sadly, the support for rail liberalisation, also the IMO mistaken focus on separation of electricity grid and production in their fight against the anti-renewables, anti-distributed power electricity giants), there is a lot of 'reform' criticism, too -- a heavy part of their opposition work now.
Nanne says that differences are mainly cultural; I'd agree but I think cultural issues matter, they may matter especially on education. (How the Hamburg coalition works or doesn't work out on that -- may or may not destroy the Greens there.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Aside from nuclear power and deploying German soldiers abroad (which, though, even the Realo wing of the Greens apparently support, according to this article)
But on the latter, they were clearly voted down by the party conference, while Özdemir effectively made the CDU's change on the former the condition of a future coalition in a new interview. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
