Abstract
In the wake of the 2019 European elections, journalists proclaimed that a “Green Wave” had swept over Europe: The Greens/EFA political group considerably augmented its number of European Parliament (EP) seats, making it the fourth-largest EP political group. This chapter traces the electoral evolution of the European Green parties that are part of the Greens/EFA political group, showing that since their first participation in European elections in 1999 they steadily increased their share of EP seats. It also investigates whether—conjointly with the Greens’ rise—other European political parties equally embraced environmental topics in their 2019 electoral manifestos. This is followed by an exploration of the Greens/EFA’s role and possible influence on the von der Leyen Commission’s priorities with a focus on the European Green Deal. The analysis focuses on the period between the nomination and election of Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission President.
We thank Elke Cloetens for helping us collect and visualise data, as well as the KU Leuven Faculty of Social Sciences and the KU Leuven C1 project CONNECTIVITY for their financial support. We are grateful for the constructive comments by the editors of this volume and all participants of the authors’ workshop on 26 January 2021.
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Notes
- 1.
Due to the reconfiguration of Parliament following Brexit the total number of MEPs was reduced from 751 to 705.
- 2.
The graph is a summary of the following Eurobarometer questions:
What do you think are the two most important issues facing your country at the moment? (2005–2009).
What do you think are the two most important issues facing the EU at the moment? (2010–2020).
The Eurobarometer data between 2005–2008 and 2020 did not make a distinction between climate change and environmental issues. The data per year describe the average of the Spring and Autumn Standard Barometer data values.
- 3.
Retrieved from https://www.greens-efa.eu/en/article/news/greens-efa-presidents-meeting-with-ursula-von-der-leyen on 2 November 2021.
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Biedenkopf, K., Vanderschueren, E., Petri, F. (2023). Riding the Green Wave? Green Electoral Success and the European Green Deal. In: Costa, O., Van Hecke, S. (eds) The EU Political System After the 2019 European Elections. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12338-2_17
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