Positive News For The Green Movement

The elections for the European Parliament at the beginning of June have presented some very positive news for the Green movement, against a backdrop of seeming apathy towards politics in general outside of economic protest votes. From a greatly reduced pie (736 parliamentary seats, down from 2004’s total of 785), the continent’s Green parties demonstrated a real rise in popularity, picking up an additional eleven seats, which took them from 43 in 2004 to a hugely impressive 54 seats. France and Germany were the epicentre of the improvement in the Green vote, each bestowing 14 seats on their respective Green parties, while most other countries voting for the parliament also delivered at least one seat.

This comes against the backdrop of what has been considered to be the “recession election”, which had threatened to become a procession of punishment for the governing parties in favour of some of the more cynical, populist parties. In the United Kingdom, where the unpopular Labour government has been the subject of scandal after scandal and is due to lose its place as the governing party at next year’s general election, the Greens increased their share of the vote by 2.5% – better than any of the established parties and considerably better than the highly publicized far-right British National Party. Due to the vagaries of the voting system, however, the Greens and the BNP ended up with two seats each, with much of the publicity going to the more headline-friendly far-right organization.

In France, however, the story was better yet, with the Greens taking third place behind the ruling centre-right coalition and the opposition Socialists. The interesting aspect to this story is that there has been a Europe-wide trend in the media pointing up issues such as immigration, national and cultural identity and issues that are euphemistically referred to as “family values”. The success and increase of the vote for the Green parties – even on a reduced turnout against the backdrop of voter apathy – does seem to point to a recognition among voters that the environment is important, and that Green politicians are well-placed to understand the challenges that we face as a world, and the issues that Europe as a continent is currently facing.

Among all the other matters that Green politics cover, there seems to be an increasing recognition that concern for the environment and for the economy are not mutually exclusive. Clean energy can be cheap energy, renewable energy can be affordable energy, and this can be a way of solving problems using joined-up thinking. Among the many initiatives supported by the pan-European Green parties are moves towards the improvement of public transport initiatives – reducing emissions and at the same time providing the public with a better choice – as well as issues of personal and individual freedoms. This Europe-wide endorsement of the Green message is one that can be taken as a positive sign that people are taking notice of the planet we share and will give to our children. Long may it continue.

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The Spring 2009 Toronto Small Press Book Fair will be taking place at the Toronto Reference Library. I will be participating in this event. For more details, visit this link -

MEET YOUR AUTHOR A DAWN AT THE TORONTO REFERENCE LIBRARY

Hope to see you all.

Europe Decides

An election which spans a whole continent will take place over the course of the next few days. Beginning on Thursday, 04 June 2009, Europe will vote to elect the members of the European Parliament. The last time Europe voted as a continent was in 2004. Among the many issues being discussed in the run-up to this election has been the possible improvement in performance for the pan-European Green movement. In the midst of what some would consider a record low point for the public’s faith in mainstream parties, the chances are that parties from outside the usual selection will perform better than they might otherwise have expected. Green parties are among those expected to profit from the situation.

In 2004, European Green parties took 42 seats from a possible 732. This year, there are a further four seats available. While the green share of the vote was low last time around, that happened during a period of relative economic strength during which, in general, the governments of Europe were largely popular in their own countries. With the credit crunch and ensuing recession knocking much of Europe into turmoil, the level of dissatisfaction with national governments will be high – and the opportunity to depose them will in some cases not arrive for a year or two. The next best thing is to give them a reminder at the European Election of the fate that awaits them if they don’t smarten up their act.

One particularly interesting place to look at is the United Kingdom. The sitting Labour government is at its absolute low point from a point of view of popularity. Their natural opposition is the Conservative party. However, the last two months have seen one of the most dominating and enduring political scandals to befall the United Kingdom Parliament in recent years, which has seen MPs fiddling their expenses and – this is the part that’s new – getting caught. Both Labour and Conservative MPs have come under pressure for this behaviour, and the third party, the Liberal Democrats, have also come in for criticism. The British public is looking for a way to punish the mainstream parties – even more so than the other European populations – and this may well work out for the United Kingdom’s Green parties. They face some challenge from the United Kingdom Independence Party (who wish Britain to leave the European Union completely) and the extreme right-wing British National Party. Recent polls suggest that the Greens will finish behind UKIP and ahead of the BNP.

Any increase in the number of European seats for Green parties would represent a massive piece of progress at a key time for environmental policy Europe-wide. The battle between mindsets which feel that renewable energy sources need to take a back seat, and those who believe that this recession means renewables are needed more than ever, will be an exceptionally fraught one. By Sunday evening (June 7^th) we will know a little more about who is winning the battle. Fingers crossed that the Greens will have made some gains.

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