European Green parties
European Green parties are political organizations focused on promoting ecological sustainability, social justice, and environmental justice. They emerged from the environmental and peace movements of the late 20th century, with their roots tracing back to the 1960s and 1970s. While they do not strictly align with the traditional left-right political spectrum, Green parties address a range of issues that resonate with diverse political ideologies. The German Green Party, known as Die Grünen, is often regarded as the original model for Green parties globally, having achieved significant representation in the federal parliament by the early 1980s.
Across Europe, Green parties have influenced political discourse, particularly as concerns about climate change have grown. By 2022, nearly eighty countries had Green parties, with a notable presence in Western Europe where they have gained legislative seats in various national parliaments, especially in countries with proportional representation systems, like the Scandinavian nations. Different Green parties have distinct platforms, addressing issues such as public transportation, grassroots democracy, and poverty alleviation, while also maintaining a commitment to environmental issues. The collaborative efforts of these parties within the European Parliament have further heightened their visibility and influence in shaping EU policies that prioritize social and environmental concerns.
Subject Terms
European Green parties
Definition: European political parties that seek to influence society toward greater consciousness of environmental issues
The Green movement has been particularly strong in Europe, and the efforts of European Green parties have had important impacts on governments’ approaches to environmental issues as well as on policy making in the related areas of economics, social justice, and foreign relations.
Ecological parties, or Green parties, can be found across the globe. In Europe, many of these parties promote sustainable development, environmental justice, improvement of the quality of life for all individuals, foreign policy centered on peaceful means, and the reorientation of the European Union to emphasize social and environmental issues rather than focusing solely on economic issues. Green parties are fairly unique among political parties inasmuch as they do not always align themselves easily at one end or the other of the left-right political spectrum; they often target issues that fall on both sides. Without actually upsetting the cleavage structures of established parties, Greens add new dimensions with their focus on the environment and social justice.
Most Green parties can trace their origins to the environmental movement of the 1960s, the protest movements of the 1970s, and the peace movement throughout the 1980s. Concerns regarding environmental degradation and the testing of nuclear weapons led to increased support for these movements, but it was not until the 1970s that true political entities were formed around these issues. The first recognized ecology party in the world was established in Great Britain in 1973. Over time, the party gained political power, and by 1989, the United Kingdom Greens were able to secure 15 percent of the votes yet were still unable to attain any seats in Parliament. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, more Green parties emerged, and many gained legislative seats. By 2010, more than thirty-five countries throughout Europe had Green political parties; more than sixty-five such parties were in existence worldwide. The most successful Green parties, in terms of seats in legislatures, have been those in Western Europe; however, divisions within these parties did emerge over issues of nonviolence, energy policy and economics. According to the Global Parties Network, there were nearly eighty countries with green parties in 2022. With the climate change crisis playing an increasing role in political elections, these parties' political influence was noted to be increasing.
The German Greens and the European Parliament
Although not the first to form or the first to gain political representation, the German Green Party is widely regarded as the mother of all Green parties. The German Greens, Die Grünen, were the first ecological party to gain large-scale representation in the federal parliament. In 1983, they garnered the support of almost one million voters throughout Germany and were awarded 28 seats out of 497, or 5.6 percent. In 2009, the German Green Party received roughly 10.7 percent of the total vote, which increased to 18 percent in 2021.
The European Parliament operates as a legislative body for Europe. Members of the parliament tend to align on the basis of ideological interests instead of by national identity. Recognizing the benefits of forming political alliances within the European Parliament, Greens from various nations began to pair with other individuals and parties. In 1984, European Greens formed a coalition with regionalists who favored devolution (the return of powers to the subnational units of government), creating the Rainbow Group. This coalition dissolved in 1989, and the Greens became the Green Group. These two groups later reunited and became the Group of the Greens—European Free Alliance, with a total representation of fifty-five members in the seventh European Parliament (2009-2014), fifty-two in the eighth European Parliament (2014-2019), and seventy-one in the eighth European Parliament (2019-2024).
Other Green Parties
Operating under a majoritarian electoral system, the Green Party in France, Les Verts, received as much as 10.6 percent of the popular vote in the parliamentary elections of 1989. The Irish Green Party, Comhaontas Glas, has been in existence since 1981. Promoting public transportation, an environmentally friendly economy, clean politics, and an honest tax package, the party has managed to consistently maintain between 1 and 3 percent of the national vote.
The Scandinavian countries tend to favor proportional representation systems, and that has helped their Green parties succeed in gaining representation. In Finland, the Green League, Vihreä liitto, has continually increased its number of seats in the parliament. The Danish Greens ran their first campaign in 1985. Their platform focuses on a variety of issues, including the creation of a society free of violence, grassroots democracy, and a desire to end poverty. When the Swedish Green Party, Miljöpartiet de Gröna, gained seats in the parliament in 1988, it was a landmark event, as the Green Party was the first new party to enter the Swedish parliament in seventy years. The scope of the issues addressed by the Swedish party is much broader than that of many other ecological parties; the Swedish Greens emphasize decentralization, direct democracy, social justice, gender equality, and placing the environment before short-term economic interests.
Bibliography
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McBride, James. “How Green-Party Success Is Reshaping Global Politics.” Council on Foreign Relations, 5 May 2022, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/how-green-party-success-reshaping-global-politics. Accessed 5 Feb. 2023.
Müller-Rommel, Ferdinand, and Thomas Pogunkte, eds. Green Parties in National Governments. Portland, Oreg.: Frank Cass, 2002.