Editing Alliance 90/The Greens (section)

===1998–2002: Greens as governing party, first term===
[[File:Gruenen Velotaxi 20050813.jpg|230px|thumb|left|A [[cycle rickshaw]] (velotaxi) in front of the German Bundestag in Berlin with the Alliance 90/The Greens livery for the [[2005 German federal election|2005 federal election]]]]

In the [[1998 German federal election|1998 federal election]], despite a slight fall in their percentage of the vote (6.7%), the Greens retained 47 seats and joined the federal government for the first time in '[[Red–green alliance|Red-Green]]' [[coalition government]] with the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD). [[Joschka Fischer]] became [[Vice-Chancellor of Germany]] and [[Foreign Minister of Germany|foreign minister]] in the new government, which had two other Green ministers ([[Andrea Fischer]], later [[Renate Künast]], and [[Jürgen Trittin]]).

Almost immediately the party was plunged into a crisis by the question of German participation in the [[Kosovo War|NATO actions]] in Kosovo. Numerous anti-war party members resigned their party membership when the first post-war deployment of German troops in a military conflict abroad occurred under a Red-Green government, and the party began to experience a long string of defeats in local and state-level elections. Disappointment with the Green participation in government increased when anti-nuclear power activists realised that shutting down the nation's nuclear power stations would not happen as quickly as they wished, and numerous pro-business SPD members of the federal cabinet opposed the environmentalist agenda of the Greens, calling for tacit compromises.

In 2001, the party experienced a further crisis as some Green Members of Parliament refused to back the government's plan of sending military personnel to help with the [[Operation Enduring Freedom|2001 invasion of Afghanistan]]. [[Chancellor of Germany|Chancellor]] [[Gerhard Schröder]] called a vote of confidence, tying it to his strategy on the war. Four Green MPs and one Social Democrat voted against the government, but Schröder was still able to command a majority.

On the other hand, the Greens achieved a major success as a governing party through the 2000 decision to phase out the use of nuclear energy. [[Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety|Minister of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety]] Jürgen Trittin reached an agreement with energy companies on the gradual phasing out of [[List of nuclear reactors#Germany|the country's nineteen nuclear power plants]] and a cessation of civil usage of nuclear power by 2020. This was authorised through the [[Nuclear Exit Law]]. Based on an estimate of 32 years as the normal period of operation for a nuclear power plant, the agreement defines precisely how much energy a power plant is allowed to produce before being shut down. This law has since been overturned.