A power struggle broke out within Germany's Greens yesterday when leading figures within the party rejected a call by the Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, for a thorough reform of its structures. Mr Fischer, who is Germany's most popular politician, fears that the environmentalist party he helped to found almost 20 years ago is in danger of self-destruction unless it discovers a new identity.
"My fear is that we could find ourselves between two millstones, disappearing into insignificance within the coalition or leaving the coalition and bearing the blame for the collapse of the red-green alliance," he told the weekly newspaper, Die Zeit.
The Greens have seen their vote evaporate in four state elections this month, as voters punish Mr Gerhard Schroder's centre-left government for a weak start in office. Many Green supporters are disappointed by the government's lack of progress on such issues as closing Germany's nuclear power stations and introducing green taxes.
But Mr Fischer believes that the party's greatest problem is that it has not yet adapted to the transition from a protest party to a party of government. "A party of government moves as part of a caravan through the desert. For us that means that we must become organisationally capable," he said.
Mr Fischer wants to replace the Greens' party manager with a more effective general secretary and to establish a campaign centre to streamline the party's publicity machine.
More controversially, he wants for himself the chairmanship of the party's coalition committee, which determines the Greens' strategy within the government. And he has demanded the abolition of the party's dual leadership system and its replacement by a single leader.
Ms Antje Radcke, one of the party's joint leaders, reacted sharply to Mr Fischer's comments and defended the dual leadership system as the most effective means of ensuring that women are always represented in the leadership. "The dual leadership works and I'm prepared to contribute to making it continue to work. The structures are not to blame for the election losses. The right use has not been made of the structures that are there," she said.
Some Greens fear that, if Mr Fischer fails to push through his proposed reforms and the party leaves the ruling coalition, he could join the Social Democrats in order to remain as Foreign Minister. Mr Fischer acknowledged that he enjoys his job but insisted that, whatever happens, he has no intention of leaving the Greens.
"I hope I can remain as Foreign Minister for these four years and, if the coalition wins the election, after that, too. But you can believe me: my thoughts are with my party and nowhere else. And my heart, too," he said.
Germany's Greens called yesterday for a mass amnesty next year for petty thieves and other minor criminals posing no threat to society, to bring in the new millennium in a spirit of tolerance and goodwill.
