The Greens continue to win elections in Europe. In Germany, they govern 11 of 16 states.

by Antonio Galdo and Daniele Brunetti

At every election in Europe thegreen Wave continues to rise. In the latest case, the regional elections in Germany in two very important states, were recorded a double success which projects the Greens into a position of super favorites for the next political elections. In the land of Baden-Wurttemberg, the Greens pass the threshold of 31 percent of the votes and Winfried Kretschmann, 72 years old, finds himself leading the land for the third consecutive time, for a total of ten years. In Rhineland-Palatinate, a region that has always been dominated by the Social Democrats, The Greens double their consensus and reach 9,3 percent. It should be noted that in both states, the German Greens are leading the government, with variable majorities: allied with the CDU in Baden-Württemberg and with the Social Democrats and Liberals in the Rhineland-Palatinate region. Overall, they are now 11 out of 16 lands in Germany where the Greens are in power, and this also gives us hope in view of the elections that will decide Angela Merkel's succession, after 16 years.

GREENS IN EUROPE

But who are the Greens—or, better yet, the most influential Greens in Europe? What goals do they work toward? And through what alliances do they plan to achieve them? Let's start with the contentsEcological sustainability, social justice, participatory democracy, and nonviolence. These are the four pillars on which the vision of society of the factions that in Europe, and not only, gather under the banner of the VerdiThese forces are living a new spring, so much so that they have become decisive in the formation of governments. Suffice it to say that in the European elections of May 26, the Greens were the second most voted party in Germany and the third in France, helping them win 69 seats in the Strasbourg Parliament (23 more than in 2014). This result is hardly surprising: The green, the German Greens, for example, have now become a reality, thanks to young and enterprising leaders such as Franziska, known as Ska, Keller and Katharina SchulzeBut Germany is not the only "green" island around Europe, in the Old Continent, in fact, also thanks to the push given by the protests of the very young Greta Thunberg, public opinion seems to be increasingly interested in the issues championed by these movements.

ALSO READ: We've launched a newsletter to collect the best Non sprecare content. To subscribe, just click here.

Green Parties in Europe

Let's get to the alliancesThe new Greens in Europe have completely metabolised the  post-ideological metamorphosis  which has transformed them, practically everywhere, into a pragmatic party, which has nothing to do with the ideological environmentalism of the seventies. It is, finally, a government environmentalism that applies the principle of sustainability, that of 17 goals of the UN 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development, to all areas of an open society with an authentic liberal, cosmopolitan imprint. With a welfare system to be reformed, less unbalanced in favor of the elderly and closer to women and young peopleWith a change inspired by highly innovative ideas, values, and goals. Without unnecessary regrets, but also without unrealistic proposals for adventure.

FRANZISKA KELLER

The green boom is linked to another underlying characteristic of the political wave focused on sustainability: youth acceptance. It's no coincidence that in Germany a third of under 30s have chosen the GreensAnd the credit also goes to one of the most interesting candidates to have participated in this electoral round: Franziska Keller, at the forefront of Europe's most influential environmentalist political leaders. The thirty-eight-year-old German leader speaks five languages, including Turkish and Catalan, has lived in various cities around the world, but considers Europe her homeland. She has a background in activism and has risen through the ranks of the party in just a few years. Having joined the Greens in 2001, a vegan from a young age, Keller managed to get elected to the European Parliament in 2009, chanting "not just grandparents for Europe." Since then, it has been a crescendo that has led her to be the European Greens' candidate for the Commission alongside Bas Eickhout. And his dream, as the leader of the most important Greens in Europe today, is loud and clear: see a woman as President of the European Commission.

To achieve this, he also tries to exploit the electorate's moods by touching the right buttons. He knows well, for example, that politicians' salaries they turn on theindignation of public opinion. And she doesn't hide anything; rather, she reacts with the right tone, publishing online, transparently, her salary and the number of hours she works. Here are the numbers: €8.484,05 salary, before taxes; 84 hours of work per week, equal to 12 hours per day. Implicit message: I am money I earn, and I don't steal.

The program that allowed Keller to double her party's votes was based on three unavoidable points: «The most urgent thing to do is certainly to address the climate crisis: we only have one planet and we must act quickly. But we must also create a social Europe of rights, with a guaranteed minimum income. The third point is to leverage the centrality of democracy because in some states we are witnessing worrying limitations of rights». Not surprisingly, the objective of the Green Party is to support proposals concrete to propose new forms of economy and new models of sustainable development.

TO KNOW MORE: German Greens: Who are the leaders of a party that can change Europe's political map? (Photos)

GREENS IN THE EUROPEAN ELECTIONS

The European elections of May 26, 2019, completely overturned the political geography of the countries of the Union. The most sensational result is certainly that of GermanyI, where now the Green Party (20,5 percent) surpass the Social Democrats (15,8 percent) and are very close to the People's Party (CDU and CSU together reached 28,9 percent).

Among the founding countries of Europe, it is also worth noting the green wave in France (13,5 percent) and the Italian anomaly (2,3 percent). Unlike Italy, in the Mediterranean area, in Spain the Greens leaped above 10 percent and also claimed victory in Portugal with a brilliant 6,9 percent. They are still irrelevant in Greece: 0,9 percent. In the Northern countries, traditionally sensitive to environmental issues, they collected 15,4 percent in Belgium, 13,2 in Denmark, 11,4 percent in Sweden, 10,9 percent in the Netherlands and 10.9 in the Netherlands. 16 percent in FinlandThe United Kingdom (11,1 percent) and, above all, Ireland (15 percent), are also increasingly turning green. In the East, however, the boom is limited to Lithuania and Latvia. After all, 69 Green MEPs sit in the European Parliament.

GREENS IN FRANCE

The Green wave in France is a growing movement. The recent municipal elections, in fact, cannot be considered an isolated case. In the country, the movement had already achieved an excellent result in the last European elections, winning 13,47% (up from 8,95% in 2014), which allowed it to become the third party Behind Marin Le Pen's National Rally and Emmanuel Macron's coalition. The party's secretary is forty-year-old Julien Bayou, who currently serves as a regional councilor for Île-de-France. Among the cities the Greens managed to win in this election are: Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Besançon. And also in Paris the mayor Anne Hidalgo She managed to get re-elected thanks to an electoral campaign that was very attentive to environmental issues and thanks to the support of the Greens. Specifically, in Strasbourg, they won with Jeanne Barseghian and in Bordeaux with Pierre Hurmic, who beat out the incumbent of the Republique en Marche, Nicolas Florian. Despite the low turnout, this result demonstrates how the party has become a left-wing alternative in France to Macronism in power and even to the right-wing opposition. Specifically, the Greens managed to capture the attention of voters who, contrary to what one might imagine, see the Covid-19 emergency as an opportunity to rethink social and economic mechanisms in a "sustainable" way. It is no coincidence that President Macron, once he acknowledged his defeat, announced: new public investments of 15 billion for "ecological conversion." A decision that can be considered a victory for the Greens even before they took office.

GREENS IN GERMANY

Elections in two German states, Baden-Württemberg e Rhineland-Palatinate, were an important test six months before the federal elections, which are expected to mark a change of era due to the end of the Merkel era. One of the most credible options for the current opposition is to create a coalition like the one that triumphed in Baden-Württemberg. In the case of this state, to defeat the chancellor's party, the CDU, they joined forces the Greens, the Liberals and the SPD (the German Social Democrats). An alliance that has been dubbed “traffic light coalition" to represent the three symbolic colors of the three parties: green, yellow, and red. This very alignment, in the end, could be the one with the best chances even on a national scale. Meanwhile, in Baden-Württemberg, it worked very well, also giving rise to what at first glance It may seem like a paradox. This Land, of which Stuttgart it is the capital, it is one of the beating hearts of the German automotive industryMercedes-Benz and Porsche are headquartered here, and a large portion of the region's citizens live off the industry. Yet, a Green party governs here. Evidently, citizens believe more than analysts and observers in an increasingly imminent and necessary ecological transitionThe credit for this triumph goes not only to the Greens, but also to 72-year-old Winfried Kretschmann, who achieved a clear personal success: he was voted for even beyond the ranks of his party, and demonstrated that an environmentalist can manage an industrial land.

The triumph achieved in the 2021 local elections is certainly not the first achieved by the German Greens. In Bavaria, since October 2018, the opposition has been led by Katharina Schulze, the 33-year-old leader of the Bavarian Greens, who as her first move upon entering the regional parliament presented a law to guarantee "half the power" to womenAccording to the head of the regional party, and one of the leaders of the group at the national level, it is clear that in Germany the roles of greatest responsibility are not divided equally, which is why it is necessary to change the electoral law, halving the electoral districts of Bavaria, and electing two candidates in each: a woman and a man, or a person of the "third sex", a status that is legally recognized in Germany.

At the national level, the leadership of the party is entrusted to two co-presidents Robert Habeck and Annalena BaerbockThe latter is considered the real rising star of the Green Party, who in a political stalemate, such as the one Germany is experiencing, could even aspire to become the next German chancellor instead of Merkel. Thirty-eight years old and mother of two girls, Baerbock studied at the London School of Economics and has served in the Bundestag, the German parliament, for two terms. At the heart of his commitment, in addition to environmental issues, is the belief that politics is not about administering the status quo but has the obligation to putting yourself at the service of people, for example, addressing the social market economy. These are recipes that can also be applied to Europe, which must finally get moving to implement the Paris climate agreement, but also to become a "common Europe," which must have common social rights. This includes affordable housing, a guaranteed minimum wage, a web tax, and a plan to end energy dependence on fossil fuels.

GREENS IN AUSTRIA

Another great success was achieved by the Austrian Greens who managed to obtain almost 10 points more than in 2017 in the national elections of September 29, 2019. In this round, the Greens collected 12,4% of the vote, returning to the Nationalrat (Parliament), after having failed to overcome the 4% threshold two years earlier. They will now be able to count on 23 deputies and are in negotiations to form a coalition government with Sebastian Kurz's People's Party. The movement's leader, Werner Kogler, however, made it clear that the alliance will only be possible if Kurz formally commits to making Austria the most sustainable country in Europe. Meanwhile, on September 29, celebrating the incredible result, the Green Party leader greeted supporters with a "Welcome to this Sunday for Future," referencing Greta Thunberg's "FridaysForFuture," which inevitably contributed to the movement's electoral success.

GREENS IN SWITZERLAND

Bordering Austria and Germany, Switzerland couldn't remain immune to the green wave. A trend that in the Swiss country has surpassed even the rosiest expectations. Suffice it to say that in the parliamentary elections held on October 20, the Green Party rose to 13,3% of the vote (6,1% more than in 2015) and gained 17 seats in one fell swoop. And it doesn't end there: in Switzerland, the environmental front is split into two movements, with another "green" party, the right-wing Liberals, which achieved 7,8% of the vote. A total of 21,1%: a tidal wave rather than a wave. Specifically, the result obtained by the Green Party, led by Regula Rytz, has allowed the deployment to become the fourth party at the expense of the Democratic People's Party, which dropped to fifth place. Among the leader's targets, in addition to coal and oil, banks too Swiss companies, which, according to Rytz, have a 20-times greater impact on climate change than the Swiss population itself. This is why the financial sector needs to be made more responsible.

GREENS IN IRELAND

Happy island of these deployments is Ireland too where the Greens, led by Eamon Ryan, achieved a result beyond all expectations in the last European elections. Thanks to a highly effective campaign, they won the capital, Dublin, and obtained 9% of the vote nationwide. A true miracle, considering that in 2011 alone, the Greens had plummeted to 1,8%. The slogan of the election campaign for the Irish capital was: "Make Dublin a leader on Climate Action." A work that has produced excellent results also on a national basis: in June, after long negotiations, there was a government reshuffle This agreement sealed a historic compromise between the two major political forces, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, both conservative, with the collaboration of the Greens, the coalition's true glue. The movement's participation in the majority is no formality; its representatives, in fact, managed to secure an agreement to implement a sustainable development agenda, which includes, among other measures, an increase in the carbon tax from €80 to €100 per ton.

TO KNOW MORE: Ireland's green plan includes a ban on gasoline-powered cars. Social housing and a carbon tax increase.

GREENS IN FINLAND

Among the most successful Greens in Europe are undoubtedly the Finns, who achieved excellent results in the last European elections and are part of the governing coalition. In the Strasbourg Parliament elections, the VIHR (Finnish acronym for "Green League") obtained 16 percent of the vote, marking a 6,7 percent increase, while at home they can count on 20 seats. Their success dates back a long time, specifically in 1987, in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, when the Green movement took shape and officially entered politics. Opposed to the market economy but also to socialism, the Finnish Greens have built their fortunes not only on environmental protection but also on participatory democracy social justiceThe movement does not define itself as either left or right, even though many of them come from the civil rights movements, feminism, and far-left radicalism.

The pater patriae of the movement in Finland is Pekka HaavistoWith an actor's face and steely eyes, Haavisto served as a parliamentarian and Environment Minister, before retiring from politics for 12 years. During this time, he held important international responsibilities for the UN. He led the UN Environment Environment Research Group in Nairobi and coordinated investigations into depleted uranium in the countries of the Serbian-Bosnian-Croatian conflict and in Iraq (where the use of enriched uranium was discovered). Returning to politics, he reached the runoff election for the presidency in 2012, losing with 37,4% of the vote. After the last election, however, he managed to secure a seat for his party in the government, which is composed of the Centre Party, the Left Alliance, the Minority Party, and the Greens. Because of this alliance, Haavisto was assigned a weighty ministry: Foreign Affairs.

GREENS IN HOLLAND

Another success story is that of the GroenLinks (GL), the Dutch Greens, who were able to win in the last provincial elections double their seats in the Senate thanks to the charismatic leadership of Jesse Klaver. With a strong reformist imprint – they are considered one of the ribs of the Dutch left – the party during the electoral campaign supported the fight against climate change, for theopenness to immigrants, and for a higher taxation of dividends. Under their leadership, in recent months, a coalition of seven parties has also introduced a law that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95% by 2050. One of the most ambitious goals in the world, however, given that it is theNetherlands It doesn't seem so out of reach. Just think that in the Netherlands, electric cars already travel more kilometers than combustion-engined ones.

GREENS IN BELGIUM

Among the most successful Greens in the Old Continent, there are also the Belgian ones who, in the last municipal elections, recorded a strong success, so much so that the national media spoke of "a green wave that spreads throughout the countryIn the city of Brussels alone, the party came in first or second place in many of the 19 municipalities that make up the capital from an administrative point of view. A success that was repeated. also in the European elections, where they won 15% of the votes. Among the leaders of the movement, which is formally divided into Flemish (Green) and French speakers (ecolo), there is Zakia Khattabi, former social worker, now co-president of Ecolo.

GREENS IN LITHUANIA

The Green Party, together with the Farmers' Party, at last political elections in Lithuania he got the 18,07 percent of the vote, confirming a growth trend that has been going on for years now (in the 2019 European elections, the percentage of votes won was 12 percent). The star is a former Lithuanian basketball and NBA champion, the fifty-year-old Sarunas Marciulionis, a gold medalist at the 1988 Olympics with what was then called the Soviet Union. By 2016, they had already achieved a major breakthrough, even managing to form a coalition government.

GREENS IN SWEDEN

Even if to a lesser extent, even in Sweden, the country of Greta Thunberg, the Greens have been decisive for the formation of the government, which was only finalized in January 2019, after months of negotiations. It is led by outgoing Prime Minister Stefan Löfven, leader of the center-left Social Democratic Party, which is supported by the Greens, who received 4,3% of the vote in the last elections. In the most recent European elections, they garnered over 11% but recorded a slight decline compared to five years ago.

GREENS IN LUXEMBOURG

In Luxembourg, too, the Green Party is at the center of the political spectrum, with a very high and significantly growing share of support: almost 19 percent. Here, one of the most influential figures is Tilly Metz, who has just been elected to the European Parliament. During the election campaign she advocated for a more cohesive Europe with greater powers, capable of remedying the errors committed in recent years. For example, on the topic of immigrationShe is convinced that a change of direction is needed, especially regarding refugee redistribution and flow control. "Failing to help Italy manage the migration phenomenon was a mistake."

GREENS IN ITALY

A long wave that affects almost all of Europe but not Italy, where, perhaps more than elsewhere, there is a guilty political vacuum. Guilty because here too there exists an ecological culture based on sustainability, not only environmental, which could potentially cross over into different segments of the electorate. But evidently the political proposal of these decades it was never up to parThe squares fill up, as in the case of the Friday for Future, but then the votes are lacking. The reasons are many, starting from thelack of credible leaders capable of leading a movement that, unlike its European twins, has not yet made the ideological leap that would allow it to become a pragmatic and proactive party. Yet there is no shortage of examples, not only in the Old Continent, but also overseas, where the ranks of the movement that supports a New Green Deal (New Green Pact) is growing stronger every day. It is based on concrete ideas aimed at reducing emissions while simultaneously creating jobs. It is no coincidence that in Germany, Green Party To complete their maturation process, they went to discuss a sustainable future right inside the factories. Because votes are only won by translating ideals into concrete proposals that can dispel fears and lay the foundations for the future. And yet, as he has repeatedly denounced, one of the fathers of Italian environmentalism, Francesco Rutelli, too often the Greens have been the 'no' party, incapable of supporting the alarms raised to safeguard the planet with concrete proposals and viable alternatives. An old party, too old, not only in the faces of the "usual suspects", with terrifying gaps compared to the push of new generations, but above all in its political proposal. And in the void of a strong and innovative female presenceThe one that is changing the political landscape throughout Europe.

The photos are taken from the candidates' social media pages.

STORIES OF VIRTUOUS POLITICS  

• Councilor Maran refuses the bribe and becomes a hero. But is it really so rare to be free from corruption in politics?
• A woman worth a thousand men: the true story of Tina Anselmi, who deserved to go to the Quirinale. And instead...
• The world's best mayor? An Indonesian woman who greened 20 percent of the city.