Overview
- The Greens used their 40th‑anniversary events at the Maximilianeum this week to underscore how the party has moved from outsider protest to institutional politics.
- Veteran Margarete Bause recalled the party’s 1986 entry into the Landtag, describing theatrical protests such as smuggling Chernobyl‑tainted hay into the chamber and the sexist and exclusionary treatment they faced from CSU leaders.
- Party leaders say decades of internal debate and professionalization produced electoral strength—peaking near 18 percent in 2018—and prepared the Greens to take on governing responsibility.
- Current parliamentary leader Katharina Schulze and several senior figures publicly frame Schwarz‑Grün as the only realistic route to power in Bavaria, though no formal coalition talks have begun.
- The shift raises a political test for the CSU because some senior CSU figures have signaled openness to cooperation while Markus Söder remains opposed, a dynamic that could shape coalition choices and policy outcomes after the next state legislative period.