European Green parties face ‘greenlash’

The Greens/European Free Alliance (EFA) group has fallen from fourth to sixth political force in the European Parliament, after losing almost a third of its MEPs (from 74 to 52). The ‘Greenlash’ or resistance to environmental policies has taken its toll and support for Green parties at European level has returned to the level it held before the qualitative leap registered in 2019 and which fuelled the European Green Deal (its objectives may be weakened as a result of Sunday’s results).

The decline of the Greens has been very noticeable in Germany – where Alliance 90/The Greens is integrated into a government coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) – and also in France, where the Greens themselves have gone so far as to call for a “pause” in the European legislative agenda after President Emmanuel Macron protested against farmers.

However, in the Netherlands, the Greens’ coalition with the left won against Geert Wilders’ far-right, and in Denmark they retained their strength with three seats. Increases in countries such as Croatia, Slovenia and Lithuania have helped reduce the losses.

“These elections are not a referendum on the European Green Deal”declared Dutch MEP Bas Eeckhout. “We have mixed results, but we cannot make simple explanations. In 2019 we won 10% of the vote, which was much more than expected. Staying at 7% or 8% is a good result for us.”

“The radical right has imposed its own narrative,” lamented Hanna Neumann, candidate for Alianza 90/Los Verdes. “They have led voters to believe that we are facing a choice between climate protection and the economy, while it is clear that both issues go hand in hand. The United States and China are making large investments in the ecological transition: if the EU steps on the brakes, it will cease to be competitive.

According to a Focaldata survey in Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Italy and Sweden, climate change has fallen to fifth place on the list of priorities for European voters, after inflation/cost of living, security, immigration and economic inequality. “Environmental concern remains high, but people’s priority is the economic impact and this can be interpreted as Willingness to soften green policies” warns James Kanagasooriyam, head of the FocalData research team.

“I refuse to fall into fatalism,” insists Laurence Tubiana, architect of the Paris Agreement and head of the European Climate Foundation. “There can be no solution to the cost of living crisis, security or competitiveness without ecological transformation. We must not ignore the fact that the majority of Europeans are concerned about climate change and want more ambitious climate action.”

However, the ‘Greenlash’ achieved its first and infamous “reversal” of the EU’s environmental policies only in February, with the abandonment of the objective of reducing pesticide use by 50% by 2030, recognized by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen as a “symbol of polarization”.

The European Green Deal proposes to reduce CO2 emissions by 55% in 2030 and reach net zero in 2050. In the coming years, targets for 2040 will have to be set and pressure will grow on the new European Parliament to review targets such as a ban on the sale of diesel and petrol cars in 2035. The leader of the Northern League Italian, Matteo Salvini pointed to the agreement as “a gift to China’s electric car industry”, an opinion that is gaining traction among far-right forces.

“Calling the environmental agenda a ‘Green Deal’ was a big mistake by the EU, because it meant putting an ideological label on it that is now showing its effect in the form of ‘greenlash,’” warns Bulgaria’s former environment minister Julian Popov. “The Americans called it the Inflation Reduction Law and in China they don’t even need a name for state investment in the energy transition. We have a communications problem that will be hard to solve

If we want to get the support of all rational people for these types of measures.

However, Denmark’s Minister for Global Climate Policy, Social Democrat Dan Jorgensen, says “the green transition will not go backwards.” In his opinion, progress is also measured by how the environmental agenda has penetrated parties across the political spectrum in recent years. “Although there is still much work to be done, the EU must continue to act as a positive force in global political diplomacy,” said Jorgensen, co-convener of the Global Review on Climate Change at COP28.