Green Parties

It has been assumed the outcome of the Swiss elections demonstrated another parliamentary shift to the far-right in Europe. A deeper look however shows the complex web behind the Swiss electoral system and further highlights the self-defeating complications of the Swiss Green network.

Although Greens in Austria have made considerable electoral breakthroughs, the recent municipal elections in Vienna showed that a considerable portion of this support is liable to abandon Greens when circumstances change and the discourse becomes more polarised. If Greens are to cement their place in the political landscape, they need to consolidate this support base and expand it in a way that is sustainable.

Alexander Langer was a political Green pioneer, both in Italy, where he founded the national list of the Greens, as well as at the European level, where he became president of the Greens-EFA group in the European Parliament. In his thinking he radically challenged not only the myth of unlimited economic growth – but also to the notions of ​​progress and thinking in terms of left and right politics.

Since 2000, the EU has deployed about 140 election observation missions. Below you can read my experiences as EU EOM-Chief Observer for the 2013 general elections in Honduras.

To diagnose the malaise which political ecology suffers from in the current political system, beset by crises of both economic and cultural natures, we must first examine the position of the Greens in the political landscape, and their relation to both the Left and the Right.

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.

Inequality is back on the agenda. French economist Thomas Piketty has drawn attention to it again with his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and that is a good thing. Green and Left-wing parties are drooling over the book, but I have heard few suggestions as to how we should fundamentally tackle that inequality. To do that, we need an idea from a completely different world.

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?

What is at stake in the upcoming national elections in Greece? Can Syriza surge to power? And what role do the Greens play in this constantly shifting political environment? However many questions there are, one thing is certain: these elections are different to any other held in recent decades. The results could change Europe permanently…

What is behind the success of the Hungarian Green Party ‘Politics Can Be Different’? Bright Green co-editor Violeta Vajda speaks to Hajdu Mária, newly-elected local Green councillor in Budapest, about the role of the Greens in Hungary today and in the years to come.