Austerity

As European ecologists, we have duty to support the Greek left after their success, and to promote our alternative model throughout Europe. We will do this today with Syriza now, and tomorrow with Podemos based on how it progresses in the future, etc. We have the responsibility and the historic chance to take part in giving Europe a new direction. However, we should not take the Greek results as a way to resolve our national electoral challenges…

There is a remarkable extent to which Syriza is in practice a Green government. First, the Greek Green Party is a part of the Syriza coalition – they got one MP elected, who was promptly promoted to deputy environment minister. Secondly, they adopted the entire Green platform: look through the policy commitments of Tsipras’ government and the manifestoes of the Green parties in the UK, and you’ll find little to separate them.

After the Greek elections, Syriza’s Alexis Tsipras won’t get everything he wants – but he will probably get enough to paint it as a victory for beleaguered Greeks.

Something exciting is bubbling under the surface of British politics. The party system is breaking apart – ironically with the help of the enemy of the left, UKIP. People are becoming active in party politics again – particularly the Greens. 2014 was a good year for the party in the UK. So what will 2015 bring?

‘Neither left nor right, but forward’ has been a semi-official motto of many Green Parties across Europe since their inception in the 1960s and ‘70s. But as the Green Party of England & Wales’ (GPEW) Autumn Conference drew to a close this weekend, the party appears to be maintaining or indeed continuing its leftward drive. The implications could be interesting both for Britain and for Green Parties elsewhere.

What made these European elections of 2014 so notable? For the first time, the European parties nominated joint leading candidates. This led not only to a greater personalisation of the European electoral campaign but also gave the elections a real pan-European dimension. What does the outcome mean for the Greens, and what conclusions can be drawn?

The European elections have yielded mixed results, but it is clear that the EU is falling short in its aims to engage citizens. To address this, long overdue reforms are needed to make the EU more democratic, and a particular focus should be placed on youth to inform them but especially to provide real prospects for their future.

An interview with Jean Lambert, MEP for the United Kingdom.

In Portugal, emigration worsens the problems caused by austerity. A recent study documents its dramatic consequences on the demography of the country. As a result of the current trend, the Portuguese population, currently estimated at 10.4 million people, could decrease to 7 million by 2061.

The turmoil the Italian political landscape has been traversing of late is particularly worrisome. Not so much for the political instability but more for the political blindness that it reveals and which risks destroying the fundamentals of the very idea of democracy itself. While the current government continues the politics of austerity imposed by the European Union, the reform of the political architecture is still missing.