EU And UK Green Parties Emerge As Enemy #1 For Far Right; 1st Choice For French Under 35 [View all]
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As the Greens emerge as the new hope for Europe’s political center, they have become enemy No. 1 for far-right populists and others who cast their policies as part of an elitist agenda that hurts ordinary people. (Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s National Rally, formerly known as the National Front, rages against “climate psychosis.”)
In Germany, where the Greens surged to over 20 percent in the recent European Parliament elections, their campaign posters explicitly attacked the far right: “Hatred is no alternative for Germany.” Britain’s Greens won a striking 12 percent of the vote, finishing fourth ahead of the governing Conservatives, not only by promoting the environment — but also by opposing Brexit. Even in France, rocked for months by Yellow Vest protests against a higher fuel tax that was ultimately scrapped, the Greens won 13.5 percent and became the most popular party among voters under 35.
With their number of lawmakers rising in the European Parliament, the Greens will have roughly the same influence in the 751-seat assembly as the far-right populists led by Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini. And like the populists, green parties are networking across the Continent, trying to coordinate campaigns and holding joint party conferences.
“The Green idea has been European from the outset, because you can’t solve environmental problems within national borders,” said Ms. Baerbock, pointing out that the very first election her party participated in was for the European Parliament in 1979. The battle is playing out not only inside nations but between them, pitting cities against rural areas, and richer, more liberal northern and western European countries against their poorer counterparts in the south and former Communist East.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/world/europe/greens-yellow-vests-germany-europe-populism.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=World%20News