The “Greens” in the German Federal Parliament for the first time

The Greens receive 5.6 % of the vote in the election to the 10th German Bundestag

Although a plethora of small parties were elected to the Bundestag in the first three federal elections after 1949, there were only ever three parties represented in the Federal Parliament after 1961: CDU/CSU, SPD and FDP. This changed in 1983 when the Green Party won 5.6% of the vote, securing 28 seats in parliament.

Since then, the environmental party has established itself as a political force on the centre-left of the republic. Apart from the first all-German elections in 1990, when the West German Greens failed to clear the 5% hurdle, the party has been a permanent feature of German parliamentary politics. Entering government for the first time in 1998, it even harboured realistic, but later unrealized hopes of winning the 2021 federal election.