Modernization of the European economy and infrastructure, improvement of quality of life and energy self-sufficiency: these are the Greens’ priorities for this year’s European elections. According to the Greens, Europe must also remain a place guaranteeing human rights and freedoms.
” Last week we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Czech Republic joining the European Union. Unfortunately, over the past twenty years, we have most often heard from Czech politicians scaremongering about what is wrong with the EU or repeating what we, as the Czech Republic, do not want. Unfortunately, we see the same thing today from the government and opposition parties in the ongoing election campaign,” the leader of the Greens candidate, Johanna Nejedlová, founder of the Konsent organization and recipient of the Woman of Europe 2019 award for her activities in the field of human rights, began her speech.
“This is also why we need a new generation of politicians – we want to offer concrete honest solutions, not just cheap populism. In our opinion, the new generation does not have to be defined only by age, but above all by a way of thinking. Today’s politicians clearly do not understand what these days are about – green topics such as nature conservation, climate change and economic modernization are not marginal. On the contrary, our prosperity and quality of life in the Czech Republic will depend on how we manage them,” Nejedlová continued in her list of priorities.
To solve the current challenges, Europe needs to work together much more. “What is at stake is what our economy will look like in, say, 10 years. Are we just going to watch how the USA and China invest massively, or are we going to join in,” pointed out Nejedlová. “As the Greens, we are pushing for a significant increase in the common European budget and the creation of a permanent instrument for borrowing on financial markets of at least 1% of GDP. Finances should go to the development of strategic sectors such as the production and development of batteries, chips or wind turbines and electrolyzers, i.e. equipment that will help modernize the economy and lower energy prices,” Nejedlová outlined the specific program vision. “In addition, modernization of the economy and protection of the climate must contribute to reducing inequalities in society. If people’s quality of life does not increase, the necessary measures will not be sustainable in the long term,” she added.
In addition to the modernization of the economy, Nejedlová emphasized the second main program pillar of the Greens: the protection of human rights and freedoms, for which, according to her, there is a constant need to fight. In the EU, she wants to promote, among other things, the introduction of the right to safe abortions into the European Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The topic of human rights and climate protection met in a recent judgment of the European Court of Human Rights. A group of Swiss senior women who sued Switzerland for insufficient climate protection succeeded in their lawsuit. In response, the former president of the Constitutional Court, Pavel Rychetský, sent the Greens a supportive statement:
What is remarkable about the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights is that it sees the violation of the convention in inaction, and its importance far exceeds the borders of the member states of the Council of Europe. For our courts and other state institutions, according to our constitutional order, the decisions of the Strasbourg Court for Human Rights have a precedential, i.e. binding, character,” said Zelené Rychetský.
The Greens have 3% in the March polling model for Median, and support for the party has doubled in polls since the start of the year.
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