The Nuclear Option

Within Europe, Germany has remained an outlier in its staunch stance against nuclear energy, a position which has become a core pillar of its national policies, but tides may be turning.

Since 2022—amid a global energy crisis—comments from German leaders and public opinion polling have suggested that the country may be rethinking its attitude towards nuclear energy, with a growing number of Germans now open to the idea. For most German political parties, nuclear energy is a question of policy. For the foundationally anti-nuclear Green Party, however, this debate is existential.

Germany’s Nuclear Energy History

Born directly from the environmentalist movement, the Green Party is fundamentally unlike other German political parties. The party has its roots in the nationwide anti-nuclear protests of the 1980s and the 1990s. As the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters in 1986 and 2011, respectively, increased public pressure to phase out nuclear energy, the Green Party mobilized to push for a nationwide nuclear exit (Atomausstieg) and simultaneously advocated for the adoption of renewable energy sources, primarily wind and solar. As support for the party intensified, it grew from a small opposition group to a mainstream governing party, forming its first federal coalition in the late 1990s. The nuclear exit was ultimately successful, as Germany closed its last nuclear reactor in 2023, just as German public opinion on nuclear energy began to turn.

Opposition to nuclear energy has historically been a unifying position in Germany, especially after the Fukushima disaster in 2011. According to polls taken that year, nine out of 10 Germans supported a nuclear phase-out. However, recent polling suggests attitudes are changing. A survey conducted in 2025 found that only 36 percent opposed the return of nuclear energy outright, while a majority (55 percent) expressed support for its restoration.

Recent shocks to European energy markets have heavily influenced this shift. The compounding effects of the energy crises in 2022 and 2026 signaled to German society that such challenges were not one-off incidents but a broader strategic issue to address. Spiraling energy costs have weighed heavily on the country’s economy, with German economists more than halving their 2026 expected growth predictions. The resultant economic anxieties are directly affecting German society, with residents now more likely to cite affordability and economic competitiveness as top priorities above environmentalism. As the long-term effects of the energy crises settle in, the resultant shift in public opinion is unlikely to reflect a short-term blip.

Nuclear Politics and the Green Party

For most German parties across the political spectrum, nuclear policy has largely kept up with public opinion. Last year, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU), Germany’s largest political party, signaled the change by calling the closure of nuclear power stations a “serious strategic mistake.” The CDU wants to “keep nuclear on the table,” while the center-right Free Democratic Party (FDP) aims to free German nuclear energy of “ideological baggage,” and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) supports the “lifetime extension” of nuclear reactors. But the Green Party isn’t jumping on the bandwagon. For the Greens, nuclear energy is not one policy position among many; it is an essential platform tied directly to the party’s origins.

While most parties have an easier time adapting to public opinion on nuclear energy, the Green Party struggles to follow. A growing divergence between the core of the party’s platform and public opinion has eroded public support for the party. While the Greens governed between 2021 and 2025, the Party experienced a drop from 15 percent to 11.6 percent of electoral votes. In light of changing trends, the party has softened some of its ideological stances and shifted its messaging toward prioritizing affordability as they look to demonstrate greater leadership in solving Germany’s immediate hurdles. Green Party politicians haven’t abandoned their oppositional stance toward nuclear energy, but have shifted their messaging strategy, increasingly emphasizing the economic benefits of phasing out nuclear energy and pivoting from the historical environmental and ideological basis for the opposition.

While other parties shift their positions, the Green Party finds itself facing a precarious balancing act: soften its nuclear stance too little and find itself out of step with the electorate, but soften too much and alienate its core base. As the Greens have evolved from a small opposition group to a mainstream player in government, the party finds itself no longer able to operate solely based on the ideology of the minority but having to contend with the immediate and often material concerns of the majority. For a party seeking a return to the governing table, resolving this tension will be the key to its future.

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