Editing Alliance 90/The Greens (section)

===2002–2005: Greens as governing party, second term===
Despite the crises of the preceding electoral period, in the [[2002 German federal election|2002 federal election]], the Greens increased their total to 55 seats (in a smaller parliament) and 8.6%. This was partly due to the perception that the internal debate over the war in Afghanistan had been more honest and open than in other parties, and one of the MPs who had voted against the Afghanistan deployment, [[Hans-Christian Ströbele]], was directly elected to the Bundestag as a district representative for the [[Berlin-Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg – Prenzlauer Berg East|Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg – Prenzlauer Berg East constituency]] in Berlin, becoming the first Green to ever gain a [[first-past-the-post]] seat in Germany.

The Greens benefited from increased inroads among traditionally left-wing demographics which had benefited from Green-initiated legislation in the 1998–2002 term, such as environmentalists ([[Renewable Energies Act]]) and LGBT groups ([[Registered Partnership]] Law). Perhaps most important for determining the success of both the Greens and the SPD was the increasing threat of war in Iraq, which was highly unpopular with the German public, and helped gather votes for the parties which had taken a stand against participation in this war. Despite losses for the SPD, the Red-Green coalition government retained a very slight majority in the Bundestag (4 seats) and was renewed, with [[Joschka Fischer]] as foreign minister, [[Renate Künast]] as minister for consumer protection, nutrition and agriculture, and [[Jürgen Trittin]] as minister for the environment.

One internal issue in 2002 was the failed attempt to settle a long-standing discussion about the question of whether members of parliament should be allowed to become members of the party executive. Two party conventions declined to change the party statute. The necessary majority of two-thirds was missed by a small margin. As a result, former party chairpersons [[Fritz Kuhn]] and [[Claudia Roth]] (who had been elected to parliament that year) were no longer able to continue in their executive function and were replaced by former party secretary general [[Reinhard Bütikofer]] and former Bundestag member [[Angelika Beer]]. The party then held a member referendum on this question in the spring of 2003 which changed the party statute. Now members of parliament may be elected for two of the six seats of the party executive, as long as they are not ministers or caucus leaders. 57% of all party members voted in the member referendum, with 67% voting in favor of the change. The referendum was only the second in the history of Alliance 90/The Greens, the first having been held about the merger of the Greens and Alliance 90. In 2004, after Angelika Beer was elected to the [[European Parliament]], Claudia Roth was elected to replace her as party chair.

[[File:Bdk-oldenburg-2005-kuenast.jpg|thumb|230px|right|Federal party convention in Oldenburg; Renate Künast speaking (2005)]]

The only party convention in 2003 was planned for November 2003, but about 20% of the local organisations forced the federal party to hold a special party convention in [[Cottbus]] early to discuss the party position regarding ''[[Agenda 2010]]'', a major reform of the German welfare programmes planned by Chancellor Schröder.

The November 2003 party convention was held in [[Dresden]] and decided the election platform for the 2004 [[European Parliament]] elections. The German Green list for these elections was headed by [[Rebecca Harms]] (then leader of the Green party in Lower Saxony) and [[Daniel Cohn-Bendit]], previously Member of the European Parliament for [[The Greens (France)|The Greens of France]]. The November 2003 convention is also noteworthy because it was the first convention of a German political party ever to use an [[electronic voting]] system.

The Greens gained a record 13 of Germany's 99 seats in these elections, mainly due to the perceived competence of Green ministers in the federal government and the unpopularity of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]].

In early 2005, the Greens were the target of the [[German Visa Affair 2005]], instigated in the media by the [[Christian Democratic Union (Germany)|Christian Democratic Union]] (CDU). At the end of April 2005, they celebrated the decommissioning of the [[Obrigheim nuclear power station]]. They also continue to support a bill for an [[Anti-Discrimination Law]] ({{interlanguage link|Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz|de}}) in the [[Bundestag]].

In May 2005, the only remaining state-level [[red-green coalition]] government lost the vote in the [[2005 North Rhine-Westphalia state election|North Rhine-Westphalia state election]], leaving only the federal government with participation of the Greens (apart from local governments). In the early [[2005 German federal election|2005 federal election]] the party incurred very small losses and achieved 8.1% of the vote and 51 seats. However, due to larger losses of the SPD, the previous coalition no longer had a majority in the Bundestag.
[[File:National Vote map die Gruenen.JPG|thumb|250px|right|Map showing Alliance 90/The Greens vote in each of the German constituencies at the [[2005 German federal election]]]]