Greens Gaining Ground

Katharina Schulze

Katharina Schulze, co-leader, (with Ludwig Hartmann) of the Bavarian Greens

Yesterday there were three important elections across Europe, and Green parties did very well in all of them. Traditional Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties did not do well, losing ground in most cases. For parties of the far right it was a very mixed picture.

The conservative CSU have ruled Bavaria since the 1950’s, for most of that time with a comfortable absolute majority. In yesterdays Bavarian regional elections their vote fell to 37.3 %, so still the largest party, but a historic low for them. The Green vote more than doubled, from 8.6% to 17.8%, putting them in second place. The far right Alternative for Deutschland won 10.2% of the vote, giving them seats in the Bavarian Landtag for the first time, where, worryingly, they’ll be the fourth largest party.

In Belgium there were regional elections across the whole country and Greens did well from the francophone south to the Flemish north, and in cosmopolitan Brussels. Across Belgium the far right Vlaams Belang got utterly devastated.

Luxembourg had national elections, in which the Greens were again the biggest winners, increasing their vote from 10.1% to 15.1%, which puts the Greens as the fourth biggest party.

In a growing number of towns and cities across Europe the Green Party are now the largest party. As of this morning several new places join the list, from the small town of Amay in Belgium, to cities like Wurzburg and Munich in Bavaria. Congratulations to all the local campaigners involved, and to the pan European Green Parties: well done!

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