Ecological Democratic Party
The Ecological Democratic Party is a conservative and ecologist political party in Germany. The ÖDP was founded in 1982 as a federal party and is the legal successor of the Green Action Future, the Green List for Environmental Protection and the Ecological Politics Working Group.
The strongest level of voting support for the ÖDP is in Bavaria, where in federal state elections they have remained stable with 2% of the votes since 1990, and at municipal level have increased their mandate count in 2014 from 320 to around 380. Since the 2014 European elections, the party is represented in the European Parliament by the MEP Klaus Buchner. The ÖDP is a member of the World Ecological Parties.
Policies
The ÖDP combines issues which are not often found together: a focus on state financial support for families and childrearing, and a belief in consistent life ethic. The latter positions and the differences listed below – have led some, including political scientist Joachim Raschke, to characterize the party as "conservative," but the party feels that all these positions are a consistent response to injustice. In most of those issues which it emphasizes, such as the environment and trade, it is similar to the Green party. It differs from the Green party by being less supportive of immigration and restrictions on state powers in criminal justice issues, not focusing on gay and lesbian rights, and having a differing view of feminism.It was one of the earliest supporters of a green tax shift, an idea which later gained broader support and has been partially implemented in Germany since the Social Democratic Party and The Greens were elected to form the federal government in 1998.
Though a very small party – it has not gained seats in a state parliament or in the Bundestag – the ÖDP became notable for its involvement in the opposition to a Czech nuclear reactor in Temelin, across the border from Bavaria. It led an initiative for a popular referendum to abolish the Bavarian Senate which was successful. It brought suit against a law in North Rhine-Westphalia which requires parties to receive 5% of the vote in order to take their seats in local councils, as well as a national law which reserves state financing only for parties that got more than one percent of the vote in at least three state elections; both laws were overturned.
The party has a youth organization called Young Ecologists.
In the 2014 European parliament elections, the ÖDP received 0.7% of the national vote and returned a single MEP. The MEP, Klaus Buchner, joined The Greens–European Free Alliance parliamentary group.
Controversy
On 17 December 2014, a single member of the Memmingen/Unterallgäu chapter of the ÖDP said at a meeting, that the proposed gender mainstreaming law was a "state license to corrupt children" and would give LGBT individuals "too much influence over a passive majority", and that LGBT individuals should not be allowed to marry. Party secretary Pablo Ziller said that the party's federal board was "disappointed" at the remarks and that the statements did not represent the party's position. According to Ziller, the party believes in extending marriage rights to same-sex couples.Leaders
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DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1982 till:2018
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ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:1982
Define $dx = 25 # shift text to right side of bar
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bar:Leaders color:orange width:15 mark: align:left fontsize:S
from:start till:1989 shift: text:Herbert Gruhl
from:1989 till:1993 shift: text:Hans-Joachim Ritter
from:1993 till:1995 shift: text:Bernd Richter
from:1995 till:1997 shift: text:Hans Mangold
from:1997 till:2000 shift: text:Susanne Bachmaier
from:2000 till:2003 shift: text:Uwe Dolata
from:2003 till:2010 shift: text:Klaus Buchner
from:2010 till:2014 shift: text:Sebastian Frankenburger
from:2014 till:2018 shift: text:Gabriela Schimmer-Göresz
from:2018 till:end shift: text:Christoph Raabs
The current leader of the party is Christoph Raabs. He succeeded Gabriela Schimmer-Göresz in May 2018.
Election results
German Parliament ([Bundestag])
European Parliament
State Parliaments (''Landtage'')
The following table shows the results of the most recent state elections the party contested:| State election, year | Votes | % of vote | Rank | Seats won | +/– | Status |
| Hamburg, 2015 | 13,621 | 0.4 | #10 | - | ||
| Baden-Württemberg, 2016 | 38,509 | 0.7 | #8 | - | ||
| Rhineland-Palatinate, 2016 | 8,623 | 0.4 | #11 | - | ||
| Berlin, 2016 | 295 | 0.0 | #21 | - | ||
| North Rhine-Westphalia, 2017 | 13,288 | 0.2 | #10 | - | ||
| Lower Saxony, 2017 | 4,042 | 0.1 | #14 | - | ||
| Bavaria, 2018 | 211,748 | 1.6 | #9 | - | ||
| Hesse, 2018 | 7,530 | 0.3 | #11 | - |