It's not that the climate isn't a big issue in Central Europe, but the main effort by opposition parties is to push illiberal parties like Hungary's Fidesz and Poland's Law and Justice from power. In the Czech Republic, the party hasn't held a parliamentary seat in over a decade.
In Poland, the Greens are part of a broader opposition coalition led by the center-right Civic Platform party, and it has three seats in the national parliament. Gergely Karácsony, the Green mayor of Budapest, is a lonely presence in Central Europe. The situation is even gloomier for the party outside its northwestern European heartland.
But the party is still overshadowed by the Socialists and by French President Emmanuel Macron's effort to appeal to green-minded voters by pushing a climate law through parliament. “No matter what, Rutte will have to go into a new government that is greener than the current one," Eickhout added.įollowing its strong showing in France in the 2019 European election, the Green EELV party now runs some of France's main cities, including Strasbourg, Grenoble, Bordeaux, Poitiers and Lyon. but in the Dutch electoral system, it’s been fragmented across parties, unfortunately, from our perspective." "So, it is a super big issue in the elections. "Behind corona, climate is basically the first, together with the economy," said Bas Eickhout, an influential Dutch Green MEP. Leader Sigrid Kaag proclaimed that the new government “must be more progressive, fairer and greener.” The surprise gainer was the socially liberal, pro-European D66 party. In the Netherlands, the Green Left lost significant ground in this month's parliamentary election, falling from 14 seats to only seven. “The Greens will consolidate their power as leading political actors," said Philippe Lamberts, the Belgian co-leader of the Greens in the European Parliament. In Italy, a new green group emerged in parliament and Beppe Sala, the Socialist mayor of Milan, announced that he would join the European Greens. Austrian Greens, who entered the government as a junior coalition partner, set a similar goal for 2040. Finland’s center left-Green coalition announced it would go carbon neutral by 2035, while Sweden’s governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens promised to reach net-zero emissions by 2045. In each of these countries, Green parties have pushed the government to set far-reaching targets for carbon neutrality. They are in government coalitions in several countries, including Belgium, Sweden, Finland and Austria. The Greens lead some of Europe's major cities including Amsterdam, Bordeaux and Budapest.
"I think almost everyone in mainstream politics has taken up the green mantle, and whoever owns the issue can do very well at it,” said Pepijn Bergsen, a Chatham House researcher and a specialist in Dutch politics, adding that a breakthrough in Germany "could be a watershed moment for the Greens."
They haven't broken through into the top league anywhere - although the party hopes that will change in Germany. But they seem to have hit a plateau in local politics and are joining governing coalitions as junior members. In recent years Greens have managed to win a share of national power in some countries and became the fifth-largest group in the 2019 European Parliament election.
#Green party how to#
That’s one way on how to differentiate ourselves from the Greens in Berlin,” said Peter Liese, the environmental spokesperson of the European People’s Party and a CDU member. “We have to proactively and positively deal with this topic, prioritizing market measures instead of bans. Mainstream parties - from Spain's Socialists to Germany's Christian Democrats and France's La République En Marche - have woken up to the climate issue and are successfully targeting green-minded voters. The Greens "will set clear rules on how to tackle the climate crisis," Annalena Baerbock, one of the party's two co-leaders, told reporters earlier this month.īut the Greens no longer have a lock on climate and environmental policies that were their mainstay for decades.
0 kommentar(er)
