Historic Victory of German Greens

In the 2021 Federal Election of Germany, greens won 14.8% of the vote nationwide and sixteen parliamentary seats, making it a historic outcome in their history. Now they are in talks to share power as part of a three-way coalition with two other minorities – Centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Business-focused Free Democrats (FDP).

READ MORE: German Elections: Greens Earn 14.8% of Vote In Historic Performance

Bavaria, Germany’s southern state, has a long history of voting conservative. However, a Greens candidate, Jamila Schaefer, was directly elected as an MP in Munich-South. This was the first time a green spot punctures the conservative blue blanket in Bavaria. “This is a major sign of change,” Schäfer told the BBC.

Source: BBC News

28-year-old Schaefer is the Greens’ deputy federal chairwoman and typifies a party that has undergone a national makeover after years of power-sharing in several German states. She has become a young activist long before Swedish Greta Thunberg made her name by skipping classes for climate protests, according to BBC News.

Obtaining reputations as well as doubts

Apart from Germany, Green parties are creeping rise in support in other European countries. In all those cases, the Greens are pressing their partners to adopt more ambitious targets for lowering carbon emissions. Elsewhere, the green mayors of Amsterdam and Budapest are aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 and 2030 respectively – to balance the greenhouse gases emitted and absorbed by their cities.

Despite the climate change campaigns, European Greens still have a long way to the power. One of the biggest challenges is distrust of Greens who do not have governing experience. The proposals of reducing carbon emissions from Greens need significant economic reforms which scare people and put them off voting green. As a result, voters cannot trust greens with the economy.

The way to power for Eastern and Southern European Greens is much more difficult because climate change is far from a top priority in post-communist countries like Poland, Hungary, and Baltic countries. Political parties in those countries care about economic problems and immigration issues leaving environmental proposals to civil society groups. Fortunately, Hungarian Greens are making their path to the parliament.

READ MORE: https://globalgreen.news/run-for-pm-budapest-mayor-challenges-viktor-orbans-autocratic-rule/

The LMP – Hungary’s Green Party has won seats in three consecutive national elections since 2010, while Dialogue for Hungary (Párbeszéd Magyarországért) received 11.9% of the vote in an alliance with the Hungarian Socialists in 2018. The leader of Dialogue, Gergely Karácsony, was elected as major of Budapest in 2019. In May 2021, he announced his candidacy for Prime Minister of Hungary, promising a new beginning that “works for the 99% and not for the privileged 1%”. Last month, Karácsony quit his primary race and joined a joint opposition nominee to challenge Viktor Orbán.

Although European greens are facing predictable and unpredictable challenges, their candidates have achieved success in history. For their future, they need to pay more attention to uniting the oppositions and channeling voters’ discontent. “Green politics in Europe is getting bigger and stronger, and I’m sure it will grow in the coming years,” Schäfer said to BBC.

Yawei Zhang

Yawei comes from China. He received a Master's degree at Lakehead University majoring in History. Passionate in journalism, he is interested in environmental and political issues. In his free time, he enjoys travelling and coin collection.

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