GERMANY: Gremany's Green Party, the junior coalition partner, was in disarray last night after rank-and-file members forced the party's joint leaders to resign.
Members at a party conference in Hanover yesterday voted to retain one of the party's founding principles which bans party leaders from being members of parliament, and jettisoned the two leaders who led the Greens to its best-ever election result in September.
It is further setback for the Green Party and its leaders who have been unable to press their advantage since returning to office despite their election result capturing nearly 9 per cent of the vote.
The party failed to secure another seat - a fourth - at cabinet as expected, while clashes with the Social Democrats (SPD) on everything from pensions to the controversial "eco-tax" on fuel have all ended with the Greens caving in.
Yesterday's controversy began when former party leaders Ms Claudia Roth and Mr Fritz Kühn won seats in last September's election, which they were determined to retain.
They called for the abolition of a party by-law banning them as party leaders from doing so, arguing that the anti-authoritarian principle formulated for a small opposition party was no longer relevant for a party in power. However, after a weekend of tense debate, they fell short of the two-thirds majority needed.
The current dispute reflects the internal split over the direction of the party. Traditionalists argue that power is turning the Greens into just another political party, while the modernists argue that the party's grassroots approach is out of touch with the realities of government.
The leadership change will strengthen Mr Joschka Fischer, the Green Party Foreign Minister, long thought of as the party's "secret leader". Party members expressed doubts yesterday that the new party leaders, Ms Angelika Beer and Mr Reinhard Bütikofer, can hold their own against Mr Gerhard Schröder while they learn the ropes.
They will look to Mr Fischer to hold the party's corner in cabinet, along with his Green colleagues Ms Renate Künast and Mr Jürgen Trittin, who hold the agriculture and environment portfolios.
"Fischer, Trittin and Künast will have to balance things out more in the coalition than before," said one party member yesterday.