The latest elections in the European countries, namely Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, evidenced historical gains of Green parties, which can be explained by the fact that the environmentalists are detached from bureaucracy characterizing traditional political heavyweights and, possibly,
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th October, 2018) The latest elections in the European countries, namely Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, evidenced historical gains of Green parties, which can be explained by the fact that the environmentalists are detached from bureaucracy characterizing traditional political heavyweights and, possibly, by the increase in climate concerns in Europe, experts told Sputnik.
Last Sunday, Belgium held local elections, the German state of Bavaria elected members of the unicameral Landtag, while Luxembourgers went to the polls as part of the general election in the country. In each election, the Greens have significantly improved their positions, while in some regions the environmentalists even managed to replace traditional mainstream parties as leaders.
The success made by the Greens in the Bavarian election, where they have managed to receive 17.5 percent of the vote and become the second major political force after Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, is viewed by many as the environmentalists' major achievement.
The results come just a couple of weeks after the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) released its report, outlining climate change impacts that could be avoided by limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius instead of the previously agreed 2 degrees.
GREENS NOT MARRED BY BUREAUCRACY'S EVILS
Speaking about the possible key to the recent success, experts believed that the Greens offer a different, fresh vision of the politics, which is different from the one proposed by traditional parties, whose image has been strongly associated with various bureaucratic lapses.
"They are 'cleaner' than other politicians, demand transparency and are perceived as more sympathetic by the average citizen, who disapproves of the perceived petty corruption, nepotism or accumulation of functions of the more traditional politicians," Belgian philosopher Matthias Somers suggested.
Giles Merritt, the founder and director of the Friends of Europe think tank, echoed Somers, saying that the environmentalists were just perceived in a different way by voters.
"The Greens are clearly a growing force in Europe, but it is difficult to say whether it is because of their environmental positions that their appeal is widening, or if it is because they are perceived as different from the other traditional parties, without traces of corruption for example, and that the coherent picture that they are projecting is persuasive for the voters," Merritt indicated.
Commenting on the election in the German state of Bavaria specifically, Christoph Mohamad Klotzbach, a lecturer in the political sciences at Julius-Maximilians-University Wuerzburg, Germany, said that he thought the Greens have succeeded in catching the mood of the moment.
"Younger generations understand the challenges of the 21st century differently, and the face of our cities is deeply changing, everywhere in Europe actually ... Their results in Bavaria were above expectations, but the same progress is to be seen in every part of Germany ... They will continue to stress the same issues, very clearly and expect to convince more citizens in the coming future," Klotzbach believed.
When asked about the role of the IPCC worrying report on climate change in the increased support for the Green parties, experts allowed the possibility that it indeed might have "fueled" the vote for Greens.
"The Greens follow effectively upon their promises and declarations. The fact that global warming is growing without being really addressed by governments is fueling the green vote. But is it the main reason of their success, difficult to know," the Friends of Europe director said.
Klotzbach, in turn, was of the view, that the role of ecological aspect in the recent developments was relatively small, adding that the fact that the Greens represented a different culture was more crucial.
"I believe it comes before the ecological aspects of the program of the Greens, even if the publicity made to the IPCC alarming report has also an influence on the voters, but probably less so," Klotzbach argued.
He noted, at the same time, that new, younger voters advocated the Green approach.
Jean-Louis Butre, the president of the French Sustainable Environment Federation (FED), complimented the ability of the ecologists to make their position known.
"The Greens have excellent communication skills. They act like a sect; I am not talking about the people voting for them, but of the hard core of their parties throughout Europe; their attacks on nuclear energy and their defense of the so-called renewable energies are a perfect example of propaganda for a wrongly perceived cause," Butre stated.
Merritt stated that the world had recently evidenced a major shift in the political balance, adding that voters seemed to "have lost its compass."
"Elections deliver 'wild' results as compared to the past. Populists often have the upper hand and traditional parties, left and right are the main losers. But on the left, the Green parties perform the best," Merritt indicated.
He added that the members of the Green parties were no longer perceived as "tree-huggers" and believed that the environmentalists had finally reached political maturity.
