Hannover: talking about Dutch multiculturalism, in Germany

Utrecht-Groningen-Hannover, and back to Groningen: traveling with the green party!

In the extreme, politics is a local activity. Den Haag, Brussels or Berlin are cities that are mostly far away. It is said that the task of the politician is to bridge this distance. And now, sited in a German train, I m busy doing exactly that. This particular trip started yesterday morning, waiting for a delayed train in the Utrecht station. Few hours and plenty fried potatoes later I was shacking hands with Harrie Miedema (http://www.groenlinksgroningenstad.nl/afdeling/fractie.shtml and scroll down), a member of Groenlinks Groningen. And an hour later, we were sited in the auto of Nikolaus Schutte zur Wick (http://www.gruene-niedersachsen.de/personen_frameset.html and then look in landesverband), driving to Hannover, and to the congress of the greens in Niedersachsen.

The reason for an argentinian, a dutch and a german to be traveling together to a political meeting of the greens is relatively recent. An initiative of greens from different countries, the Heerlen group, has in the few last years started to establish -or to recognize- networks in between regional green parties across the border. In the particular case of Niedersachsen and Groningen, this collaboration is very active since the last European election. A congress of the german greens has happened in groningen, reciprocated later by several groenlinks activities hosted by the germans. And of lately, in each congregation of the green party guests from the neighboring country are welcome and actively invited. Which is what brings me in the picture. In the congress 'Stadt, land, groen', I was invited to talk about the multicultural question in the current Netherlands. A talk of which I will not write here, but from which you can see the sketch in a powerpoint presentation (http://www.scicha.org/GL/doc/Hannover.ppt). And that is what the photo above is about, also.

What I do want to write here about is the extremely interesting, not to say wonderful experience of cross a border, this time to attend a political meeting.

One of the starting points of greens politics is the concept of the region. In the intermingled and localized identities of European peoples of today, it is almost a truism to say that two border-towns share more than any of them and the capital of the respective country. And that is undoubtedly true for most local political enterprises. Geography and culture make that, for example, the ecological preservation of a delta, like the delta of the Mosselle is a task for the people that live there, which happens to be peoples belonging to three different countries. So their local networks play a most relevant role, more relevant than the role of each national government.

What is interesting to say here is that on top of this regional identity, the national identities remain present and perhaps reinforced. And that is why to walk in to a green -german- meeting is also to enter in another world, a different world of the Dutch evening discussion. Take a look at the agenda of the congress that I attend, for example. Discussions started at midday and were not due to an end before 9 pm. Which was more a pause than an end, since as usual politics continue long into the diner and well into the beers, later.

Or take the style of the speakers, perhaps the most remarkable difference. I have hardly heard an address in the Netherlands going for more than twenty minutes. And in Hannover I sit to hear speakers that would gloss for an hour and more without problem, reviewing not only their key issues, but more interestingly, establishing a rapport with the public, a conversation at best.

It is fair to say that in each exchange of information the players should make different tradeoffs. If you choose for length and conversation, it is likely that you will loose full attention from your audience. But the choice for short and sketchy presentations also looses -at least some of- the pleasure that I had last night, refreshing the little german that I learned years ago, with the at times conversational, at times emotional, at times powerful addresses that leaders of the german greens gave to their members.

As the amateur sociologist that every politician is, we could now do some little analysis of the reasons, the cultural differences that bring about this difference of two close neighbors, such as the greens of the netherlands and the greens of germany. One could mention the long humanistic tradition of germany, and compare it with the traditionally pragmatic and down to earth style of dutch people. But I feel that such an analysis would loose some of the mere thrill of, once more, cross the border and check other cultures, other answers to the same questions that, at each side of the border, keep us being busy with our, paneuropean, green party.