Politics

The Spanish citizenry has organised the so-called “convergence list of candidates” for the local elections in May 2015. These lists have integrated political parties, civil society and independent citizens aiming to regenerate the local policy from a political, social, economic and ecological point of view. What are the common points of such lists?

It was a pleasure to keep counting the Green vote and realising that we have a lot to celebrate: Caroline Lucas’ well-deserved win, Darren Hall’s massive increase in the Green vote, and the fact that the #GreenSurge held fast and delivered over 1 million votes for the Greens across the UK in spite of an electoral system stacked against us.

It was just the four of us: all women, Mediterranean, and “differently green.” The purpose of our trip was to better understand the inner workings of the newly elected Greek government, and to see how the Greek Greens were faring as junior partner in the Syriza government.

Halfway between a structured party and an explosive grassroots movement, Podemos remains a difficult-to-describe political UFO.

Since 2000, the EU has deployed about 140 election observation missions. Below you can read my experiences as EU EOM-Chief Observer for the 2013 general elections in Honduras.

Even if SYRIZA is defeated at the end, forced to comply with Europe’s inflexible neoliberal doxa, it has already achieved a first small victory: political disagreement, that is at the very heart of democratic dialogue.

By electing a new radical left government determined to oppose the corruption, clientelism and tax-evasion, the Greek people have opted to exit the vicious circle of austerity that has left the country with no prospect for recovery. However, it is not only Greece at the crossroads but Europe as a whole. The new Greek paradigm is not written in stone and it is therefore inviting all those who are interested in the political future of the European Union.

To diagnose the malaise which political ecology suffers from in the current political system, beset by crises of both economic and cultural natures, we must first examine the position of the Greens in the political landscape, and their relation to both the Left and the Right.

As European ecologists, we have duty to support the Greek left after their success, and to promote our alternative model throughout Europe. We will do this today with Syriza now, and tomorrow with Podemos based on how it progresses in the future, etc. We have the responsibility and the historic chance to take part in giving Europe a new direction. However, we should not take the Greek results as a way to resolve our national electoral challenges…

There is a remarkable extent to which Syriza is in practice a Green government. First, the Greek Green Party is a part of the Syriza coalition – they got one MP elected, who was promptly promoted to deputy environment minister. Secondly, they adopted the entire Green platform: look through the policy commitments of Tsipras’ government and the manifestoes of the Green parties in the UK, and you’ll find little to separate them.