Although it’s difficult to overlook the relative success of the far right and the calamitous results for the centre-left at the recent European elections, environmentalists can perhaps at least console themselves with encouraging green party results in many European countries.

Impressive improvements on 2004 in the UK, France & Germany, and now 50 MEPs sitting in the Greens/European Free Alliance fraction in Brussels - well placed to further the debate & legislation on Europe-wide carbon cuts & other crucial environmental measures.

In the UK, the Green Party’s share of the vote increased by more than any other party - to 8.6% - and they came very close to pushing out the BNP in both the Yorkshire & the Humber and the North-West constituencies. Caroline Lucas was resoundingly re-elected with 11.6% in the South-East and Jean Lambert with 10.9% in London. The SNP and Plaid Cymru also sit in The Greens/European Free Alliance fraction in Brussels so the UK has 5 green seats, the same as in 2004.

Die Grünen in Germany achieved one of  their best-ever electoral results, with 12.1% of the vote and 14 MEPs (that’s one more seat than Labour managed in the UK). In Germany’s three city states the Greens polled 23.6 % (Berlin), 22.1% (Bremen) & 20.5% (Hamburg). A special mention goes to the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district of Berlin (where I’m currently living!), where the Greens polled a massive 43.2%. The really outstanding Green result of these elections was however in France, where the Europe Écologie party picked up 14 seats, from just 6 last time around, on over 16% of the popular vote. There were also Green gains in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark & Sweden (unfortunately however in an election dominated by Berlusconi the Italian Greens lost all 5 of their European seats). All this number-crunching aside however, what do these results mean for the Green parliamentary movement in Europe?

The wider environmental movement has never been and must never be overly reliant on its parliamentary wing - think of the vibrancy of climate change campaigning in the UK despite no Green MP - and increased electoral success is not always a positive for the green movement. Represented in the Bundestag since 1983, the German Greens have (perhaps unavoidably) become gradually more moderate ever since, whether in quieting their opposition to nuclear power or agreeing to war in Kosovo (under the then Green Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer). Whereas any form of parliamentary coalition was once seen as unacceptable given the compromises - on policy, practice, and democracy - that it would necessitate, now even coalition with the conserative CDU seems to be becoming an option. Various leading personalities have refused to rule this out - partly because the chances of the German Greens being able to form a majority with the social democrats are looking ever less likely - and Daniel Cohn-Bendit has stated that this must also be an option for green parties in Europe (Cohn-Bendit is co-leader of the Brussels Green fraction and set up Europe Écologie in France - he’s come quite a way from his radical role in the Parisian 1968).

Of course in the UK the situation is vastly different given the electoral first-past-the-post system, under which the Green Party has failed to come anywhere near winning parliamentary seats. Even the system used under the European election disadvantaged the British Greens - with one national list instead of regional lists, nearly 9% of the vote would have translated into 6 or 7 seats, instead of two. Although the direct impact on the environmental movement would be questionable, most would agree that it would be an amazing achievement for Caroline Lucas to become the first Green MP at the next election - which is a definite possibility in the Brighton Pavilion constituency. Until a form of proportional representation is implemented, governing responsibilities will never be a danger to the British Greens, but having even one voice in parliament would make life more uncomfortable for the next undoubtedly “greenwashing” government.

It would certainly be a mistake to overlook the massive political & electoral differences between European Green parties, with the British Greens searching for their first MP and the German Greens looking to head back to government, but these latest electoral results do show a common trend in Green Parties across Europe benefiting from the collapse in the social democratic vote. The German SPD, French PS & British Labour Party each suffered their worst ever European results; it seems that a hoped-for 40% has now turned into 15-20% for the center-left. Its absolutely crucial that the Left and the Greens step up and fill this growing void in European politics, because if they fail to, the (far) Right is waiting in the wings. Green parties must continue to be a progressive alternative to the likes of Berlusconi, Merkel, Cameron & Sarkozy - because the traditional center-left political opponents of these figures are manifestly failing in their task. If the Greens fail to do this, the result will not only be an increased neo-liberal climate-destroying European majority, but more of the likes of Nick Griffin around European parliaments as well.

Tags: Caroline Lucas, Die Grünen, European Elections, Green Party, social democracy

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 13th, 2009 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Environmental Issues, In The News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.