After endless heated debates, a motley group of environmentalists, feminists, peace and anti-nuclear power activists founded the Green Party in 1980 with its distinctive sunflower logo. Who would have thought that, 30 years later, the party would have become one of Germany's five main political forces?

Ecological concerns, once their distinctive platform, have meanwhile become a part of mainstream politics. Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democrats (CDU) is known internationally as the "Climate Chancellor."

The "anti-party party" has moved on from its radical, anti-establishment roots to becoming another option on the ballot sheet. It has served in many state parliaments, and spent eight years in the national government - experiences which have taught the Greens to compromise.

But Green member of parliament Hermann Ott has warned that, in order to be effective, the Greens have to be avant-garde.

Not everybody's darling

"We cannot become everybody's darling," he said. "The Greens will have to continue to point the finger at where the wounds are, and where the problems lie. That will always be unpopular with large parts of the population."

All the same, the party won a record 10.7 per cent in last year's parliamentary polls.

"The Social Democrats (SPD) have lost their left image to a certain extent, the leftist Left Party is too left for most people," said Annika Laux of the Institute for German and European Political Party Law and Research in Duesseldorf.

"The Greens are the only party that can fill that gap," she told Deutsche Welle. She said that it is important that the Greens do not lose their image as a left-wing party between the extreme left and the SPD.

Green voters are middle-class urban professionals, Laux said, people with a good income, people who care about the environment, about immigrants and social problems, but are not organized in unions.

Both left and middle

Parliamentary leader Juergen Trittin has described the Greens as the middle left ground, with members who define themselves clearly on the left, but are anchored firmly in the middle of society.

Currently, the party is on the opposition benches in the federal parliament - and should be pondering future coalitions, said researcher Laux.

"They can't stay in the opposition forever. Every party needs power options."

The Greens must now decide which way to go. "If they don't, they will lose their authenticity," Laux warned.

Up next are polls in May in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state. The Greens ruled the state from 1995-2005 with the SPD. While they are now contemplating a coalition with Merkel's CDU, they have so far kept their options open by refusing to commit to any one partner.

And they have to find new issues. That is a problem for most parties, Laux said: "If they don't find new topics, there will be new parties that do."

Author: Dagmar Breitenbach
Editor: Michael Lawton