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Germany's
Greens Turn Left, Avoiding Radical Motions
Germany's Greens voted in favor of extending social benefits but rejected
a proposal that would guarantee a basic income to everyone at a key party
congress that ended in the city of Nuremberg on Sunday, Nov. 25.
The party, in opposition since the September 2005 elections, backtracked
from the market reform policies introduced under the last government,
when it was the junior partner in Social Democrat (SPD) Chancellor Gerhard
Schröder's coalition.
Some 800 party delegates backed a motion for 60 billion euros ($90 billion)
a year in increased state expenditure in payments to the unemployed, on
education and on child support. At the same time, however, the party base
voted by 59 percent to reject a plan to pay a basic income to everyone
in Germany, irrespective of whether they worked or not.
Opponents of the more radical proposal said it would cost 1 trillion euros
a year. Party leaders Reinhard Bütikofer and Claudia Roth were expected
to resign if it had been passed.
Strengthened in opposition
Bütikofer said the party had emerged from its congress halfway through
Germany's electoral cycle "strengthened in opposition, strengthened
in its capacity to govern."
"If we wish our policy to have weight in society, it must be visionary
and ambitious, but most of all politically practicable," Bütikofer
told rank-and-file members.
The Greens have been struggling to profile themselves as an opposition
party, especially after the departure of their charismatic leader Joschka
Fischer in 2005.
The party's repositioning on the German political scene is important because
of the effect it may have on the coalition calculations in both the upcoming
state elections next year and the 2009 general elections.
The rejection of the basic income proposal came as a relief to the Greens'
leadership, which was seriously challenged at a special assembly two months
ago when grassroots members -- going back to their traditionally pacifist
roots -- voted down a leadership motion for continued support of the German
military presence in Afghanistan.
Less surveillance, more freedom
Greens delegates also rejected moves promoted by Christian Democrat (CDU)
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble to increase police powers to
monitor computers online, warning against a "preventive surveillance
state" to counter the threat of terrorism.
In a shift to the left, the party staked out a position that combined
environmental concerns with social policies.
It said it aimed to pay for the increased spending by increasing incomes
taxes at the top end, raising inheritance taxes and closing tax loopholes.
Germany faces important state elections next year. At a federal level,
Chancellor Angela Merkel's unwieldy grand coalition, combining her conservative
Christian CDU/CSU bloc with the SPD, is thought likely to survive until
the September 2009 elections.
A recent poll gave the CDU/CSU 40 %, the SPD 24%, the Left 12%, the Greens
9% and the market-liberal FDP 9% of the national vote.
Source: Deutsche-Welle
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40th World Conference
of the IAPC
Board Meeting in Copenhagen
The EAPC Board has met in Copenhagen to prepare the next conference in
May and to plan the work for the next months till the new Board will be
elected in Copenhagen. Board Member and Conference Chairman Jan Juul Christensen
presented the Conference theme “Public affairs in a Changing Environment”
as well as a preliminary program and PR-activities to promote the Conference.
On October 1 a website will be launched for the Conference with information
about the Conference and about the lovely City of Copenhagen. In the meantime
you can find a small summary on our website at Next
meeting. But this was not the only point on the Agenda. The Board
agreed on a working plan to modernize and improve the Association. A group
is going to work on the modernization of the web and another group is
preparing a plan of action for the future till the Conference in May.
If you are considering becoming a member of the EAPC this is for sure
the moment to join us.
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