{"id":74001,"date":"2024-06-16T04:54:14","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T04:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/16\/the-greens-are-dead-long-live-the-greens\/"},"modified":"2024-06-16T04:54:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T04:54:14","slug":"the-greens-are-dead-long-live-the-greens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/16\/the-greens-are-dead-long-live-the-greens\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greens Are Dead. Long Live the Greens!"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/16\/multimedia\/16eu-greens-01-jltp\/16eu-greens-01-jltp-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"The Greens Are Dead. Long Live the Greens!\" title=\"The Greens Are Dead. Long Live the Greens!\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There is no sugarcoating it: losing one-third of their seats in the European Parliament elections last week, the Greens tanked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The European Union has in recent years emerged as the world\u2019s most ambitious frontier in fighting climate change. It did so through major policy shifts like setting high targets to cut emissions, preparing to ditch combustion engines, pushing for nature restoration and curbing the effect of farming on the environment. Green parties across the 27 E.U. member states have successfully driven that agenda.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But over the past few years, something has clearly snapped in much of the European electorate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">European voters are anxious about the war in Ukraine and its effect on defense and the economy. A cost-of-living crisis fueled by the coronavirus pandemic is still gripping core European Union members. Curbing immigration has emerged as a voter preoccupation. In this new set of priorities, the Greens\u2019 appeal seems to have faded \u2014 or worse, made them appear out of touch.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEurope really did a lot on climate action,\u201d Bas Eickhout, a prominent Green politician from the Netherlands who serves as the European Greens\u2019 vice president, said in an interview. \u201cBut especially after the war in Ukraine and the inflation that has caused the cost-of-living crisis, I think there are a lot of people concerned now and asking, \u2018OK, can we afford this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-5387dde4\">Post-Mortem<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A number of explanations are emerging as to why the Greens did badly electorally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Centrist parties nibbled away at the Greens\u2019 support by incorporating much of their agenda into their own policies. Yet the Greens\u2019 own identity failed to evolve sufficiently. That made the Greens seem too narrowly focused on an issue \u2014 the climate \u2014 that has slipped down in the ranks of voters\u2019 priorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But there is also a broader trend at play that does not favor Europe\u2019s Greens. A backlash against climate change policies as part of broader culture wars has gained momentum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In many places, the nationalist agendas of far-right parties have been augmented by populist appeals to economically strained citizens. The right surged among voters by targeting the Greens specifically, painting them as unfit to protect poorer working people in rapidly changing societies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For many voters, Green parties failed to show that their proposals were not just expensive, anti-growth policies that would hurt the poorest the most. And some view them as elitist urbanites who brush aside the costs of the transition to a less climate-harming way of life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Eickhout said that line of attack on his party had taken hold. \u201cThey portray this transition as a very elitist transition, that it\u2019s only for the \u2018Tesla people,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I can tell you, Tesla does not have a good image anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Then there are Europe\u2019s farmers, who protested fiercely against green policies over the past two years, particularly rejecting those seeking to limit the use of chemicals in agriculture and introduce nature protections that would eat away at farmlands. The protests spooked moderate voters and politicians.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Europe, Green parties polled particularly poorly in countries where they are a part of the governing coalition \u2014 primarily in Germany.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The enormous youth movement that had buoyed the Greens to win one in five votes in Germany five years ago has been punctured by being part of the governing coalition. \u201cThe party can\u2019t please the younger progressive voters who they want to welcome into the fold and, at the same time, appease moderate voters who are wealthier,\u201d said Sudha David-Wilp, a regional director at the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Because Germany is the most populous nation in the European Union \u2014 and so is allocated the most seats in the European Parliament\u2019s 720-seat assembly \u2014 the Greens\u2019 poor performance there reverberated widely.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-375caab0\">Green Shoots<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The picture for the Greens is not dire everywhere. Green parties performed very well in Nordic countries like Denmark, Finland and Sweden, with one possible reason being higher prosperity and longer debates about climate change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And they made surprising inroads in eastern and southern Europe, including Italy and Spain, places that have traditionally had weak Green parties and, in some cases, never even elected Green deputies in the European Parliament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Perhaps the most complex political picture for the Greens emerged in the Netherlands, a country with a particularly powerful climate change movement; a uniquely organized and strong farmers\u2019 movement; and a hugely successful far-right movement that <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/23\/world\/europe\/dutch-election-results-far-right-geert-wilders.html\" title=\"\">won the national elections late last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There, the Greens formally ran together with Labor, a social democratic party, and won the election, relegating the far-right party to second place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For the Greens, this kind of successful collaboration could be a model for coalitions in upcoming local and national elections elsewhere in the European Union, Mr. Eickhout said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely crucial that the Green party has broader credibility, not only on climate,\u201d he said, adding that collaboration with social democratic parties could help create a compelling progressive alternative to conservatives and the far right, while staying true to the Greens\u2019 climate roots.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-483769ae\">Who Pays?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The poor showing for the Greens has triggered a chorus of lament that the European Union Green Deal \u2014 as the collection of policies the bloc has adopted to fight climate change and limit its own contribution to it is known \u2014 is dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Experts say that these concerns are unrealistic: Many of the policies that are meant to make an ambitious target for reducing carbon emissions possible are already law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But procrastination and dilution of the policies because of the loss of Green momentum are very real risks, warns Simone Tagliapietra, an E.U. climate policy expert with Bruegel, a major Brussels-based think tank.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And defunding the Green Deal policies could also crush their effectiveness. To avert that, he added, the European Union should push for a joint budget to invest in the green transition and protect the poorest from any economic fallout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe radical Green Deal transformation raises tough questions about who will pay,\u201d Mr. Tagliapietra said. \u201cIf those costs end up falling disproportionately on ordinary workers \u2014 let alone the poorest and most vulnerable communities \u2014 the transformation will worsen inequality and become socially and politically unviable,\u201d he added. \u201cThat is not an option.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Christopher F. Schuetze<!-- --> contributed reporting from Berlin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/16\/world\/europe\/the-greens-are-dead-long-live-the-greens.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is no sugarcoating it: losing one-third of their seats in the European Parliament elections last week, the Greens tanked. The European Union has in recent years emerged as the world\u2019s most ambitious frontier in fighting climate change. It did so through major policy shifts like setting high targets to cut emissions, preparing to ditch [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/16\/multimedia\/16eu-greens-01-jltp\/16eu-greens-01-jltp-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[169,23595,1767,1404],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74003,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74001\/revisions\/74003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}