Signals of hope are coming out from the European continent in spite of what is happening in all the world: some weeks ago we have had the elections in Bavaria, the local elections in Belgium and the national elections in Luxembourg, and contrary to the rise of authoritarianism everywhere (today Jair Bolsonaro has won the presidential elections in Brazil), the unexpected moral winners have been the Green parties, and the same thing has happened yesterday at the elections in Hessen.
In Bavaria the result has been astonishing because everyone expected a huge success for the AFD which failed to do so and lost vote in comparison to the last national elections and the Greens, led by Katharine Schulze among with the liberal parties have been the main winners punishing both the Bavarian CSU and the SPD (and I would add also Die Linke which did not enter the Bavarian parliament).
This green surge in Europe is, as I said, unexpected whilst the populists have shown to have lost a part of their appeal (in Belgium and Luxembourg there is no main populist party like the German AFD or the French Front National).
The Green parties in Europe have always struggled because they have always an agenda too focused on green politics and sometimes they were not able to enlarge their own political programme occupying a certain political position in the spectrum right-left.
The Greens have also had a conflictual relation with the European integration because some of them see the EU as a means to implement green policies in a wider range whilst another part has a conception of small and isolated realities as good, therefore they oppose the EU.
We have already seen a Green politician triumphing against populism and far-right and this person was the Austrian President Alexander Van Der Bellen who won over Norbert Hofer on December 2016.
Keeping his green stances, Van Der Bellen moved to social liberal and centrist positions to appeal a wider electorate and this has been done also by the Dutch GroenLinks.
The strategy of the Greens to move to the centre has been winning because in the Dutch case the Greens have become the strongest left-wing Party by eclipsing the social-Democratic Labour Party (Parti Van De Arbeid) and the far-left populist Socialist Party.
But this is not the only reason why Greens are succeeding: they are showing that authenticity pays off because they just went on with what they believed without fearing a backlash and knowing the risk against populist strategies focused on talking to people’s stomachs more than brains.
In a time where xenophobia, euroscepticism and isolationism, in Germany the Greens have openly stated that immigration is not the evil (and they have explained it), that there is the need for more Europe and that we need to remain open and cooperative.
Greens have gone beyond the traditional right-left cleavage and this has seduced the left: in Italy Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party, trying to chase the rhetoric of his adversaries, has been punished by the electorate.
The same things could be claimed concerning Belgium and Luxembourg: the Greens are moving from the dichotomy right and left, and have become a broad political force focused on openness.
History does not repeat itself in an inevitable way; Europe has learned from its past and right and left look like overcome.
The green surge has been a huge boost for Europe and the EU and shows how the European continent is resisting and how politics has changed.
In front of isolationism, authoritarianism and disintegration we may have found an alternative and it is not the left wing populism of Corbyn. Sanders, Melenchon of Varoufakis which is a symptom of the same disease, but a politics of real openness based on pro-Europeanism and democratic and economic inclusiveness.
Greens and liberals are winning, Christian Democrats, social-democrats and far-left and far-right are losing: we are in the middle of postmodernism and green is the colour of hope, so let’s see what will happen.
– Riccardo Grisanti
The Window on the World 