Originally posted by KazetNagorra
It's politics. Merkel is eyeing a possible future coalition with the Greens, who have been doing very well in polls especially since the Fukushima disaster.
I'm sure the Greens party as a worldwide concern are not to be confused as being one and the same in each nation state's example of them, but if Australia's Greens party are anything to go by, then they sail pretty close to the wind of being a front organization for big oil.
To whit: The Australian Labor Party was ready to push through legislation for an ETS scheme and the Greens who by their previous credentials as saviors of the planet, you would have thought, would have helped get the legislation through Parliament. But instead they took the moral highground and sniffed at the proposal saying that the scheme's targets at carbon reduction were way too modest and they pulled their support of the legislation. Now with a hung Parliament the Greens are giving support for an interim Carbon Tax that will get the country on the road towards, wait for it, an Emissions Trading Scheme. (ETS) Now call me silly, but why didn't they support the government 2 years ago when all the legislation needed was only the government plus their support? They could have always lobbied at increasing targets once the legislation was in place.
Which brings me to my point. The greens promote change and environmental responsibility, but when they were given the opportunity to exercise their conscience and vote in favour of something they purportedly stood for, they backed out because it didnt go far enough. Rather than have something, we now still have nothing, and are unlikely to for many a year. So who are they working for again? The environment??? hmph!!!