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Ecological Democratic Party
Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei
AbbreviationÖDP
LeaderCharlotte Schmid
Founded23/24 January 1982
HeadquartersÖDP-Federal Office Würzburg
Pommergasse 1
D-97070 Würzburg[1]
Youth wingyoung.ecological
Membership (2024)Decrease 7,200[2]
IdeologyGreen conservatism[3]
Social conservatism[4]
Catholic left[5]
Degrowth[6]
Political positionCentre-left[a]
European affiliationEuropean Free Alliance[b]
EUDemocrats[c] (formerly)
European Parliament groupGreens/EFA (2014–2024)
European People's Party (2024–present)
International affiliationWorld Ecological Parties[13]
Colours  Orange
Bundestag
0 / 735
State Parliaments
0 / 1,889
European Parliament
1 / 96
Website
http://www.oedp.de/
  1. ^ Initially considered centre-right,[7] the party had undergone a "profound shift to the left" in the 2000s,[8] and moved towards the centre-left.[9] It is also described as left-Catholic,[10] and political scientist Uwe Kranenpohl argues that left-wing tendencies dominate over conservatism in the ÖDP.[11]
  2. ^ Manuela Ripa is direct member
  3. ^ Klaus Buchner was a direct member[12]

The Ecological Democratic Party (German: Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei, ÖDP) is a green conservative[14][15][16] and ecologist[17] minor party in Germany. The ÖDP was founded in 1982.

The strongest level of voting support for the ÖDP is in Bavaria, where in federal state elections they have remained stable with 1.6-2% of the votes since 1990, and at municipal level have increased their mandate count in 2014 from 320 to around 380.[18][third-party source needed] After the 2019 European elections, the party was represented in the European Parliament by Klaus Buchner, who resigned in 2020. He was replaced in the European Parliament by Manuela Ripa. The ÖDP is a member of the World Ecological Parties.

History

[edit]

The Ecological Democratic Party is a green party that is active throughout Germany and has its clear focus in Bavaria.

The party's rise is closely linked to its founder, the politician and environmentalist Herbert Gruhl. Gruhl was Member of the Bundestag from 1969 to 1980 and member of CDU. The founding of ÖDP dates back on the ecological movement in the 1970s. Gruhl gained attention by publishing a best-seller in 1975: "Ein Planet wird geplündert" (A Planet is Being Plundered). In the book he criticized the growth-oriented economy of industrial society. He also attacked nuclear energy policy and thus represented a clear minority position among Christian Democrats, while an intensive discussion was already developing in the SPD about a possible nuclear phase-out. Gruhl left the CDU in 1978 but stayed as non-partisan member of the Bundestag until 1980. He founded the "Grüne Aktion Zukunft" (GAZ), which later became part of The Greens. Gruhl lost the election for the party chairmen. Gruhl had a more conservative consistent life ethic ("Lebensschutzkonzeption"), which addresses besides environmentalism also the rejection of abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty. Also his policy was referred as ethno-centric. Gruhl left the Greens and, in 1982, founded the ÖDP.[19]

Some commentators have said that the party has moved over the years in a more liberal direction regarding some issues since the mid-2000s.[20] In many issues it emphasizes, such as the environment and trade, it is similar to the Alliance '90/The Greens. It differs from them by being less supportive of immigration and restrictions on state powers in criminal justice issues, not focusing on gay and lesbian rights as part of its platform, and having a differing view of feminism.

It was one of the earliest supporters (since 1989) of a green tax shift, an idea which later gained broader support and has been partially implemented in Germany since the Social Democratic Party and The Greens were elected to form the Federal government in 1998.

Though a very small party – it has not gained seats in a state parliament or in the Bundestag – the ÖDP became notable for its involvement in the opposition to a Czech nuclear reactor in Temelin, across the border from Bavaria. It led an initiative for a popular referendum to abolish the Bavarian Senate (that state's upper house) which was successful. It brought suit against a law in North Rhine-Westphalia which requires parties to receive 5% of the vote in order to take their seats in local councils, as well as a national law which reserves state financing only for parties that got more than one percent of the vote in at least three state elections; both laws were overturned.

The party has a youth organization called Young Ecologists (Junge Ökologen).

In the 2014 European parliament elections, the ÖDP received 0.7% of the national vote (185,119 votes in total) and returned a single MEP.[21] The MEP, Klaus Buchner, joined The Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) parliamentary group.[22]

Ideology

[edit]
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In its peak in the 1990s, the political position of the party was unclear. However, most political scientists considered the party to be nominally right of centre. German political scientist Jürgen Wüst called the party centre-right in 1993, cited the party's ideological proximity to the Catholic philosopher Robert Spaemann.[7] The party repositioned itself following the electoral collapse and loss of many members in early 2000s - the party lost two-thirds of its electorate in the 2002 German federal election, and did not participate in the 2005 German federal election at all. Afterwards, the party had undergone a "profound shift to the left".[8] From 2005 onwards, the party is considered centre-left by German political scientists such as Heinz-Siegfried Strelow.[9]

The party is predominantly Catholic - according to a 2008 survey, 70% of the party was composed of Catholics. A majority (55%) of the party members attend religious services at least monthly, which is higher than in Christian confessional parties like the CDU and CSU. The ÖDP is influenced by Catholicism in many of its programmatic stances - it strongly opposes restricting the right to asylum, harsher criminal punishment, and abortion. Additionally, the ÖDP strongly support an extension of the German welfare state and a complete nuclear phase-out.[11] According to Uwe Kranenpohl, the ÖDP's opposition to abortion is even stronger than in CDU/CSU; Kranenpohl writes:

The attitudes towards the abortion issue are particularly noteworthy: unsurprisingly, the differences between the members of the ÖDP and the Greens are greatest here - the former reject liberalisation to the same extent as the latter support it - but a third of CDU and CSU members are also in favour of less strict regulation of this issue, which also reveals clear differences with the ÖDP. [...] In terms of their denominational structure and church affiliation, the ÖDP is similar to the members of the CDU/CSU party, but draw different conclusions from their Christian orientation and consistently and to a large extent consensually represent the concept of comprehensive protection of life: these core points of the party programme therefore reflect the political convictions of the members very well and are able to act as a bracket for the ‘Christian Greens’.[11]

The party is said to follow Christian values, and the German political scientist Oliver Geden described the party as "left-Catholic".[23][10] It is also said to be morally conservative.[4] Following the Catholic social teaching, a central principle of the party's program is "respect for life", which is considered "sacred in all its forms". This results in demands for the protection of nature and the environment and a fundamental scepticism towards "artificial" interventions in nature. In this, the party includes abortion, euthanasia and medical interventions to prolong life. To this end, the party opposes aborton, euthnasia and death penalty.[24]

The party's focus in environmentalism, which is often combined with moral conservatism - for example, its 2009 "for real non-smoking protection" campaign that attracted national attention condemned smoking on both environmental and moral grounds.[3] The party proposes more restrictions and harsher persecution of violence and pornography in the media.[25]

Economically, the party is left-wing and committed to degrowth.[6] It focuses on sustainable economics, and calls for Germany to have 100% of its energy from renewable sources, a comprehensive "mobility transition" that would reduce car traffic by at least 50%, a publicly-owned national water supply, and an introduction of universal basic income for parents to cover the material costs of children.[3] The ÖDP also calls for the immediate shutdown of nuclear power plants, appropriate housing of animals in agriculture, efforts to reduce meat consumption and the ecological restructuring of agriculture.[25]

Controversy

[edit]

On 17 December 2014, a single member of the Memmingen/Unterallgäu chapter of the ÖDP said at a meeting, that the proposed gender mainstreaming law was a "state license to corrupt children" and would give LGBT individuals "too much influence over a passive majority", and that LGBT individuals should not be allowed to marry.[26] Party secretary Pablo Ziller said that the party's federal board was "disappointed" at the remarks and that the statements did not represent the party's position. According to Ziller, the party believes in extending marriage rights to same-sex couples.

Leaders

[edit]
Charlotte SchmidChristoph RaabsGabriela Schimmer-GöreszSebastian FrankenbergerKlaus BuchnerUwe DolataSusanne BachmaierHans MangoldBernd RichterHans-Joachim RitterHerbert Gruhl

The current leader of the party is Charlotte Schmid. She succeeded Christian Rechholz in October 2022.[27]

Election results

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Federal parliament (Bundestag)

[edit]
Election year # of
constituency votes 		% +/- # of
party list votes 		% +/- # of
overall seats won 		+/-
1983 3,341 0.0 New 11,028 0.0 New
0 / 520
 Steady
1987 40,765 0.1 Increase0.1 109,152 0.3 Increase0.3
0 / 519
 Steady
1990 243,469 0.5 Increase0.2 205,206 0.4 Increase0.1
0 / 662
 Steady
1994 200,138 0.4 Decrease0.1 183,715 0.4 Steady
0 / 672
 Steady
1998 145,308 0.3 Decrease0.1 98,257 0.2 Decrease0.2
0 / 669
 Steady
2002 56,593 0.1 Decrease0.2 56,898 0.1 Decrease0.1
0 / 603
 Steady
2005 did not participate
2009 105,653 0.2 Increase0.2 132,249 0.3 Increase0.3
0 / 622
 Steady
2013 128,209 0.3 Increase0.1 127,088 0.3 Steady
0 / 630
 Steady
2017 166,228 0.4 Increase0.1 144,809 0.3 Steady
0 / 709
 Steady
2021 152,886 0.3 Decrease0.1 112,351 0.2 Decrease0.1
0 / 709
 Steady

European Parliament

[edit]
Election Votes % Seats +/– EP Group
1984 77,026 0.31 (#10)
0 / 81
 New –
1989 184,309 0.65 (#8)
0 / 81
 Steady 0
1994 273,776 0.77 (#10)
0 / 99
 Steady 0
1999 100,048 0.37 (#12)
0 / 99
 Steady 0
2004 145,537 0.56 (#12)
0 / 99
 Steady 0
2009 134,893 0.51 (#13)
0 / 99
 Steady 0
2014 185,244 0.63 (#13)
1 / 96
 Increase 1 G/EFA
2019 370,006 0.99 (#11)
1 / 96
 Steady 0
2024 257,968 0.65 (#13)
1 / 96
 Steady 0 EPP

State parliaments (Landtage)

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The following table shows the results of the most recent state elections the party contested:

State parliament Election Votes % Seats +/– Status
Baden-Württemberg 2021 37,819 0.8 (#12)
0 / 154
 Steady 0 No seats
Bavaria 2018 211,951 1.6 (#9)
0 / 205
 Steady 0 No seats
Berlin 2023 1,682 0.1 (#23)
0 / 147
 Steady 0 No seats
Brandenburg 2019 7,237 0.6 (#10)
0 / 88
 New No seats
Bremen 2023 5,488 0.4 (#12)
0 / 87
 New No seats
Hamburg 2020 27,617 0.7 (#9)
0 / 123
 Steady 0 No seats
Hesse 2018 7,539 0.3 (#11)
0 / 137
 Steady 0 No seats
Lower Saxony 2022 526 0.0 (#18)
0 / 137
 Steady 0 No seats
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 2021 936 0.1 (#19)
0 / 79
 New No seats
North Rhine-Westphalia 2022 9,664 0.1 (#15)
0 / 195
 Steady 0 No seats
Rhineland-Palatinate 2021 13,406 0.7 (#12)
0 / 101
 Steady 0 No seats
Saarland 2022 613 0.1 (#15)
0 / 51
 New No seats
Saxony 2019 6,000 0.3 (#14)
0 / 119
 Steady 0 No seats
Saxony-Anhalt 2021 1,062 0.1 (#20)
0 / 97
 New No seats
Thuringia 2019[a] 4,833 0.4 (#12)
0 / 90
 Steady 0 No seats
  1. ^ Joint list with the Family Party of Germany.

References

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  1. ^ "ÖDP Branch addresses and contacts". Archived from the original on 27 January 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  2. ^ Meiß, Linda (7 May 2024). "Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei - Die Naturschutzpartei". Federal Agency for Civic Education (in German).
  3. ^ a b c "Bundestagswahl 2021: ÖDP". Tagesschau (in German). 21 September 2021.
  4. ^ a b Dann, Christine R. (1999). "From Earth's last islands: The global origins of Green politics" (PDF). Lincoln University. p. 230.
  5. ^
    • Geden, Oliver (1999). Rechte Ökologie: Umweltschutz zwischen Emanzipation und Faschismus (in German). Berlin: Verlag Espresso/Elef Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-3885207597.
    • Dold, Nils (4 September 1998). "Bundestagswahl: Tierschutz in den Programmen der Parteien - Kaum Platz für Tiere" [Bundestag election: Animal welfare in the parties' programmes - hardly any room for animals]. Junge Freiheit (in German). 37 (98). Die aus den radikal-ökologischen Grünen hervorgegangene und heute am ehesten als links-katholisch einzuordnende Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei (ÖDP) steht in punkto Schutz der Schwächsten unserer Gesellschaft den Republikanern näher als den Bündnisgrünen. [The Ecological-Democratic Party (ÖDP), which emerged from the radical-ecological Greens and is now best categorised as left-wing Catholic, is closer to the Republicans than the Alliance Greens when it comes to protecting the weakest members of our society.]
  6. ^ a b Möhrke, Jennifer (2023). "Degrowth and the German Green Party: A study investigating the position of the German Green Party towards the concept of degrowth and degrowth policy proposals" (PDF). Graz: Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz. p. 71. Schmallenbach observes that the Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP) is the only German party to commit itself to the goal of a degrowth economy in its Manifesto of Principles.
  7. ^ a b Wüst, Jürgen (1993). Konservatismus und Ökologiebewegung. Eine Untersuchung im Spannungsfeld von Partei, Bewegung und Ideologie am Beispiel der Ökologisch-Demokratischen Partei (ÖDP) (in German). Frankfurt am Main: IKO – Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikationen. p. 157. ISBN 3-88939-275-X.
  8. ^ a b Kempf, Volker (2008). Herbert Gruhl – Pionier der Umweltsoziologie. Im Spannungsfeld von wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis und politischer Realität (in German). Graz: Ares-Verlag. p. 194. ISBN 978-3-902475-47-3.
  9. ^ a b Strelow, Heinz-Siegfried (2006). Aufstieg und Niedergang konservativer Umweltparteien in Europa. In: Naturkonservativ heute Jahrbuch der Herbert-Gruhl-Gesellschaft e.V. (in German). Essen: Die Blaue Eule. p. 101. ISBN 3-89924-156-8.
  10. ^ a b Dold, Nils (4 September 1998). "Bundestagswahl: Tierschutz in den Programmen der Parteien - Kaum Platz für Tiere" [Bundestag election: Animal welfare in the parties' programmes - hardly any room for animals]. Junge Freiheit (in German). 37 (98). Die aus den radikal-ökologischen Grünen hervorgegangene und heute am ehesten als links-katholisch einzuordnende Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei (ÖDP) steht in punkto Schutz der Schwächsten unserer Gesellschaft den Republikanern näher als den Bündnisgrünen. [The Ecological-Democratic Party (ÖDP), which emerged from the radical-ecological Greens and is now best categorised as left-wing Catholic, is closer to the Republicans than the Alliance Greens when it comes to protecting the weakest members of our society.]
  11. ^ a b c Kranenpohl, Uwe [in German] (2008). Günter Buchstab; Hans-Otto Kleinmann (eds.). "Die "christlichen Grünen". Sozialstruktur und politische Einstellungen der Mitglieder der Ökologisch-Demokratischen Partei (ödp)". in: Historisch-politische Mitteilungen: Archiv für Christlich-Demokratische Politik (in German). Köln: Böhlau Verlag GmbH: 47–63. ISBN 978-3-412-20272-9. ISSN 0943-691X.
  12. ^ "EUD Mitgliedschaft" (in German). 17 June 2015. Archived from the original on 10 January 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. ^ "Members – World Ecological Parties". Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  14. ^ Klandermans, Bert; Mayer, Nonna (2005). Extreme Right Activists in Europe: Through the Magnifying Glass. Routledge. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-134-24546-8.
  15. ^ Buchstab, Günter (2010). Die Ära Kohl im Gespräch: eine Zwischenbilanz. Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar. p. 311–. ISBN 978-3-412-20592-8.
  16. ^ Hofmann, Wilhelm (2005). Politische Identität - visuell. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 71–. ISBN 978-3-8258-8471-0.
  17. ^ Spindler, Max; Schmid, Alois (2003). Das neue Bayern: Staat und Politik. C.H.Beck. p. 972–. ISBN 978-3-406-50451-8.
  18. ^ "ÖDP Bayern: Mandatsträger". oedp-bayern.de. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  19. ^ "Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei (ÖDP) – Historisches Lexikon Bayerns". www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  20. ^ Schminke, Tobias Gerhard (13 August 2020). "Small German EU Parliament Parties One Year Ahead of National Parliament Election". Europe Elects. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  21. ^ "Übersicht". Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  22. ^ "Up-to-date list of the MEPs for the new legislative period". greens-efa.eu. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  23. ^ Geden, Oliver (1999). Rechte Ökologie: Umweltschutz zwischen Emanzipation und Faschismus (in German). Berlin: Verlag Espresso/Elef Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-3885207597.
  24. ^ Białobłocki, Krzysztof (2013). "Ideological Positioning Of Green Parties In The Left-Right Spectrum: Comparative Analysis Of Cases In Western And Central Europe" (PDF). Rozwój polityczny i społeczny państw Europy Środkowej i Wschodniej. 3. Kutno: Wyższa Szkoła Gospodarki Krajowej w Kutnie: 45. ISBN 978-83-63484-10-1.
  25. ^ a b Bräuninger, Thomas; Debus, Marc (10 February 2021). "Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei / Familie und Umwelt". Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (in German).
  26. ^ "ÖDP: Homos raus aus dem Standesamt". queer.de. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  27. ^ "Charlotte Schmid ist neue ÖDP-Bundesvorsitzende". Süddeutsche. 3 October 2022.
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