A party that can do both: the contemporary German Greens and the political style of 'Gentrified Protest'

Within the literature, the German Greens are considered a paradigmatic model for other Green parties due to their success in gaining widespread political legitimacy in West Germany in the 1980s (Frankland, 2008; Müller-Rommel and Poguntke, 2002). Kitschelt’s (2006) conception of movement parties emphasises the lack of longevity in a truly hybrid form, where the German Greens’ transition out of their hybrid phrase was marked by their ‘willingness to make a credible commitment to centre-left government coalitions’ (Kitschelt, 2006, p.285). The professionalisation of multiple Green parties has led to scholars creating a novel ideal-type of political party, the ‘professional-activist’ account for those parties that sit between ‘amateur-activist’ and ‘electoral-professional’ types (Rihoux and Frankland, 2008). The ‘professional-activist’ ideal-type is most prevalent within the German Greens, who adopt many electoral-professional characteristics within the party in central and public office, whilst the party on the ground still displays predominantly amateur-activist characteristics (Rihoux and Frankland, 2008). This paper presents data from an interpretive ethnographic doctoral research project on Green Party members in Berlin, Kiel, and Stuttgart to illuminate the micro-level, lived experiences of party members and the party on the ground. In doing so, it illuminates the legacy of movement parties 40 years after the formation of the (West) German Greens under European Law and 30 years after the formation of Alliance 90 in East Germany. Drawing on nine months of fieldwork conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper demonstrates contemporary ‘cultural interpenetration’ between the German Greens and movements such as Fridays for Future and anti-far-right activism (Kitschelt, 1989, p.228). It does so using the novel conceptual framework of ‘gentrified protest’ as a political style based on sanitised societal perceptions of protest and politics, perceived authenticity, and an association of protest and movement with a party’s brand and aesthetic. Thus, the lens of ‘gentrified protest’ helps to elucidate the Green Party’s role in the protest eco-system of left-wing, party-sponsored protest in contemporary German political culture, a nation with the highest level of party-sponsored protest in North West Europe (Borbáth and Hutter, 2021). Bibliography: Borbáth, E. and Hutter, S. 2021. Politische Parteien als Protestakteure. In: Brichzin, J. and Siri, J. eds. Soziologie der Parteien: Neue Zugänge zu einer alten Organisationsform des Politischen. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, pp.101-125. Frankland, E.G. 2008. The Evolution of the Greens in Germany: From Amateurism to Professionalism. In: Frankland, E.G., et al. eds. Green parties in transition: the end of grass-roots democracy? Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., pp.19-41. Kitschelt, H. 1989. The logics of party formation: Ecological politics in Belgium and West Germany. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Kitschelt, H. 2006. Movement parties. Handbook of party politics. London: Sage Publications, pp.278-290. Müller-Rommel, F. and Poguntke, T. eds. 2002. Green parties in national governments. London Frank Cass. Rihoux, B. and Frankland, E.G. 2008. The Metamorphosis of Amateur-Activist Newborns into Professional-Activist Centaurs. In: Frankland, E.G., et al. eds. Green parties in transition: the end of grass-roots democracy? Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., pp.259-287.