Democracy

MEP Sven Giegold looks back at 2015 and some of the key Green political fights on the European scene. He sheds light on what he thinks will be the 2016 key battlefields for the Greens and for Europe to survive nationalisms and populisms.

The consumption of meat and animal by-products is something we take largely for granted. Up until two years ago, I was a blind omnivore, consuming more than my fair share of factory farmed meat and dairy and never once thinking about where the food I ate came from, or the resounding impact it had upon so many levels of society and industry. In the aftermath of COP21, it is time to examine the shady nature of one of the most environmentally degrading industries in the game.

An interview with Chantal Mouffe.

The European Union can find a democratic revival by supporting social innovation and by extension contribute significantly to the ecological transition. That is the primary conclusion of the framing paper that was just published by Professor Olivier De Schutter in preparation for the Francqui International Conference that will take place on May 8-9th, 2014 in Brussels.

While the spectrum of ideas defining a Green foreign policy remains wide, several overarching tenets have emerged over the past decades.

Long perceived and portrayed as a party unlike the others, Ecolo has succeeded in becoming one of French-speaking Belgium’s four ‘big’ parties in just 30 years. But today, many struggle to grasp what distinguishes the Green party since so many others have adopted the theme of sustainable development. A review of ‘Ecolo, Democracy as a Project’ by Benoit Lechat.

In the recent European elections, Slovakia saw participation plummet to new lows. Yet the combination of this abstention with general satisfaction towards EU membership gives rise to a curious paradox, in which voter behaviour today continues to be affected by historical memory and many other complex factors.

In the face of rising populism, Europe must adopt an audacious approach that addresses the anxieties of citizens and proposes a vision of the welfare state beyond the nation state.

In the European elections, European citizens were for the first time given the opportunity to vote for a common European candidate to take the Presidency of the Commission. Yet now it seems uncertain whether this promise will materialise. The outcome will either reinforce or lessen the deficit of legitimacy in the EU.

Using the symbolic politics of ‘government of the people for the people’, Orban secured a comfortable re-election. He skillfully captured shifting political moods, and helped fracture the left. However his future plans remain unclear, and Hungary may now witness a battle between right and far-right.