The group is ditching some of its ambitions as it prepares to back conservative Ursula von der Leyen atop the EU executive.
Most Greens, who rejected von der Leyen in 2019, now say they want to join her coalition. | Olivier Chassignole/AFP via Getty Images
POLITICO EU
JULY 12, 2024
BY LOUISE GUILLOT, ZIA WEISE AND LEONIE CATER
BRUSSELS — Europe’s chastened Greens are preparing to trade idealism for influence.
After taking a beating in last month’s European Parliament election and losing a quarter of their seats, the environmentalists are scrambling to remain relevant as surging right-wing forces reach for power.
A tough choice awaits them: Stick to their uncompromising stance on environmental issues and pave the way for a right-leaning coalition — or forego some principles and join a centrist alliance, with all the political risks that entails.
All signs point to the latter. In interviews with POLITICO, many of the group’s lawmakers and officials acknowledged that adapting to the EU’s new political reality requires a paler shade of green.
“We are ready to step back on a few of our issues for the sake of democracy, because we definitely do not want any democratic party to work with the far right or with people who don’t respect the rule of law,” said Jutta Paulus, a German Greens MEP who has worked on major environmental files for the group.
The approach was on full display this week as Ursula von der Leyen made the rounds in the Parliament to shore up support for a second term as the EU’s top executive.
After the Greens met with von der Leyen on Wednesday, there were no strident demands, no unyielding environmental rhetoric. Instead there was an eagerness to negotiate, to compromise. Greens co-leader Bas Eickhout didn’t even strongly defend the EU’s landmark 2035 ban on traditional car sales when asked about a conservative plan to weaken it.
The same tone was woven throughout the Greens’ priority list obtained by POLITICO. Climate-friendly policies had a more business-friendly veneer — like a proposal for a “green industrial investment plan.” There was no urgent plea to significantly step up climate ambition, previously a Green hallmark, just a request to “keep up” the pace.
“Are we ready to do anything to be a member of this coalition? The answer is clearly no,” said French MEP Marie Toussaint.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that all Greens agree on what trade-offs should be made. “Red lines are being debated within the group, and we don’t [all] have the same vision of these red lines,” she added.
The first major inflection point arrives Thursday, when MEPs vote on whether to back von der Leyen as European Commission president. While there are no formal coalitions in the European Parliament, with groups cobbling together alliances ad hoc, the assembly’s vote will set the tone for the coming five years — and for the Greens’ future.
In 2019 von der Leyen was able to rely on the support of her own center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the center-left Socialists & Democrats (S&D) and the liberal-centrist Renew Europe to win confirmation. This time she'll likely need the backing of a fourth group: the Greens — or the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).
Most Greens, who rejected von der Leyen in 2019, now say they want to join her coalition. Co-leader Terry Reintke told reporters on Wednesday that the group feels it has a responsibility to be “part of the majority” to prevent the formation of a right-leaning parliamentary alliance.
The question is at what cost — to their credibility, to their political fortunes, and to the future of the European Green Deal.
The Green arc of history
In the first few years of the previous parliamentary term, the Greens acted as an unyielding — and vocal — opposition force. Buoyed by growing concern about global warming ahead of the 2019 EU election, they consistently advocated bolder climate action.
The European Green Deal? Not ambitious enough, they said. When the bloc adopted its climate-neutrality target in 2021, the group voted against it, declaring the mid-century deadline insufficient.
But the shift toward pragmatism doesn’t come out of nowhere.
In late 2021, both the Austrian and German Greens joined coalitions at home, forcing them to make painful concessions. In Brussels, the legislative cycle moved on from debates to actual votes, and the group usually ended up backing the final compromise even if it was much weaker than their initial position.
Then, amid a pandemic and the war in Ukraine, climate anxiety took a back seat to security fears and cost-of-living concerns. The far right rose, farmers took to the streets in protest against the Green Deal and unfair wages, and conservative lawmakers turned against nature-protection efforts as the EU election drew closer.
Rather than fighting for a more ambitious end result, the Greens frequently found themselves trying to salvage what they could. Last year they voted through a nature restoration bill even though it had been weakened almost beyond recognition.
That’s something the Greens might have to get used to if they decide to join the informal coalition backing Ursula von der Leyen, suggested former Irish MEP Ciarán Cuffe, who lost his seat in last month’s election.
“The level of ambition may have to be reduced in order to be part of that majority,” he said. “We've already seen a bit of this, with the Nature Restoration Law, which started off as a quite ambitious piece of legislation, but [was] reduced in scope and ambition in order to get it across the line.”
External circumstances, however, aren’t the only force reshaping the Greens.
Following last month’s election, the group isn’t just smaller, it’s also become more diverse. To boost their numbers the Greens have welcomed five MEPs from Volt, a pan-European party that hasn’t made green issues a priority so far.
Plus, while the share of German and French MEPs shrank in the election, the group added lawmakers from Central and Eastern Europe, while its Nordic contingent remained strong.
With Greens from these regions often taking a less ideological approach, “perhaps that means we'll be more pragmatic in this mandate,” Cuffe said.
The election losses prompted “a bit of soul-searching” within the group, he added. “I think if we had come back with the same numbers, we would have been saying, ‘we must really increase climate efforts in the 2020s, this is the decade of change, we need to step up our ambition.’ But we didn't come back with the same numbers.
Split over VDL 2.0
The Greens tend to vote as a bloc in Brussels, and cracks in the united front they present to the public are rare. But some lawmakers worry that giving up on demands to join a broader coalition will tarnish their credibility, especially among their activist base.
Toussaint, the French MEP, was among those who think the Greens should keep their opposition role.
"As long as the mainstream political parties are not changing course, I do not think we have an interest to go into [this coalition],” she said. “It's in our interest to stay where we are — that is, not to take part in this coalition, which would ask us to support policies that are not our own.”
Toussaint's preference? “Keep fighting for every text … as we have done over the last few years.”
The Greens who want to join the centrist coalition say they won’t do so at any cost. But Toussaint said the Greens are still discussing their red lines internally — something Eickhout downplayed on Wednesday, pointing to the group’s agreed priorities.
Former Irish Green MEP Grace O’Sullivan, who lost her seat in June, said the group should only enter a coalition if von der Leyen gives “absolute assurances in writing, and a clear commitment and timescale with guarantees” on staying the course with the Green Deal — or risk losing even more support among voters. “I think we will be stronger outside.”
Newly elected Slovenian Green MEP Vladimir Prebilič also said he would not support von der Leyen’s reelection. If rolling back parts of the Green Deal is “the future strategy of the future Commission, I strongly believe we cannot play the game.”
But others say that within a coalition, the group can act as Green Deal guardians.
Outgoing EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, who will take his seat as a Greens MEP next week, said his group “can definitely be part of a strong pro-European coalition, which would … ensure that the Commission has a strong mandate and has comfortable conditions to be ambitious” on climate and environmental policies.
“It would be really good for Europe that we have a bigger coalition,” said Gordan Bosanac, MEP for Možemo!, a new Croatian green party. “I don't think it can be devastating for the party if we see the long-term benefits for the Europeans.”
But, he conceded, joining a larger coalition “also then means more compromises.”
Defensive crouch
The question for the Greens is how much leverage the group can wield in such an alliance. Some wonder whether the group, which has effectively asked von der Leyen to choose them over the populist right next week, can still attach any conditions to their support.
“They evidently rely on our righteousness and pro-European position,” said Thomas Waitz, an Austrian MEP and co-president of the European Green Party, a continent-wide collection of green parties. “They’re knocking on our door, having already divided up key positions.”
Waitz doubts von der Leyen can give the Greens significant policy promises, and is focusing on ensuring more influence for the group. “Perhaps a commissioner from the Greens, or an openness to include Green personnel in commissioner cabinets,” he said, referencing the 26 commissioners that would oversee various policy portfolios for von der Leyen.
The group will always advocate more ambitious climate action, Waitz said, but argued the election result shows the Greens have yet to convince voters of the benefits.
The Greens’ climate focus should be on ensuring the laws passed over the last five years are implemented, he added. “I don’t like saying it, but it’s about keeping [the Green Deal] alive.”
Eickhout was more optimistic, believing the Greens could push a few policy changes on von der Leyen. The group wants better protection of marine environments and greater efforts to prepare the bloc for climate disasters, for example.
But many Greens echoed Waitz’s view that the group’s role was now defense rather than offense.
“Clearly there has been a move to the right, and the Greens have been the loser for that. I guess the question now is, what happens to the European Green Deal?” said Cuffe, the former Irish MEP.
“I just hope that our green commitments stay on track and don't go backwards. And that, I think, will be a key question for EU institutions in the years ahead — and, particularly for Ursula von der Leyen, in the days ahead.”
Marianne Gros contributed reporting and Hanne Cokelaere contributed graphics.
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JULY 12, 2024
BY LOUISE GUILLOT, ZIA WEISE AND LEONIE CATER
BRUSSELS — Europe’s chastened Greens are preparing to trade idealism for influence.
After taking a beating in last month’s European Parliament election and losing a quarter of their seats, the environmentalists are scrambling to remain relevant as surging right-wing forces reach for power.
A tough choice awaits them: Stick to their uncompromising stance on environmental issues and pave the way for a right-leaning coalition — or forego some principles and join a centrist alliance, with all the political risks that entails.
All signs point to the latter. In interviews with POLITICO, many of the group’s lawmakers and officials acknowledged that adapting to the EU’s new political reality requires a paler shade of green.
“We are ready to step back on a few of our issues for the sake of democracy, because we definitely do not want any democratic party to work with the far right or with people who don’t respect the rule of law,” said Jutta Paulus, a German Greens MEP who has worked on major environmental files for the group.
The approach was on full display this week as Ursula von der Leyen made the rounds in the Parliament to shore up support for a second term as the EU’s top executive.
After the Greens met with von der Leyen on Wednesday, there were no strident demands, no unyielding environmental rhetoric. Instead there was an eagerness to negotiate, to compromise. Greens co-leader Bas Eickhout didn’t even strongly defend the EU’s landmark 2035 ban on traditional car sales when asked about a conservative plan to weaken it.
The same tone was woven throughout the Greens’ priority list obtained by POLITICO. Climate-friendly policies had a more business-friendly veneer — like a proposal for a “green industrial investment plan.” There was no urgent plea to significantly step up climate ambition, previously a Green hallmark, just a request to “keep up” the pace.
“Are we ready to do anything to be a member of this coalition? The answer is clearly no,” said French MEP Marie Toussaint.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that all Greens agree on what trade-offs should be made. “Red lines are being debated within the group, and we don’t [all] have the same vision of these red lines,” she added.
The first major inflection point arrives Thursday, when MEPs vote on whether to back von der Leyen as European Commission president. While there are no formal coalitions in the European Parliament, with groups cobbling together alliances ad hoc, the assembly’s vote will set the tone for the coming five years — and for the Greens’ future.
In 2019 von der Leyen was able to rely on the support of her own center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the center-left Socialists & Democrats (S&D) and the liberal-centrist Renew Europe to win confirmation. This time she'll likely need the backing of a fourth group: the Greens — or the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).
Most Greens, who rejected von der Leyen in 2019, now say they want to join her coalition. Co-leader Terry Reintke told reporters on Wednesday that the group feels it has a responsibility to be “part of the majority” to prevent the formation of a right-leaning parliamentary alliance.
The question is at what cost — to their credibility, to their political fortunes, and to the future of the European Green Deal.
The Green arc of history
In the first few years of the previous parliamentary term, the Greens acted as an unyielding — and vocal — opposition force. Buoyed by growing concern about global warming ahead of the 2019 EU election, they consistently advocated bolder climate action.
The European Green Deal? Not ambitious enough, they said. When the bloc adopted its climate-neutrality target in 2021, the group voted against it, declaring the mid-century deadline insufficient.
But the shift toward pragmatism doesn’t come out of nowhere.
In late 2021, both the Austrian and German Greens joined coalitions at home, forcing them to make painful concessions. In Brussels, the legislative cycle moved on from debates to actual votes, and the group usually ended up backing the final compromise even if it was much weaker than their initial position.
Then, amid a pandemic and the war in Ukraine, climate anxiety took a back seat to security fears and cost-of-living concerns. The far right rose, farmers took to the streets in protest against the Green Deal and unfair wages, and conservative lawmakers turned against nature-protection efforts as the EU election drew closer.
Rather than fighting for a more ambitious end result, the Greens frequently found themselves trying to salvage what they could. Last year they voted through a nature restoration bill even though it had been weakened almost beyond recognition.
That’s something the Greens might have to get used to if they decide to join the informal coalition backing Ursula von der Leyen, suggested former Irish MEP Ciarán Cuffe, who lost his seat in last month’s election.
“The level of ambition may have to be reduced in order to be part of that majority,” he said. “We've already seen a bit of this, with the Nature Restoration Law, which started off as a quite ambitious piece of legislation, but [was] reduced in scope and ambition in order to get it across the line.”
External circumstances, however, aren’t the only force reshaping the Greens.
Following last month’s election, the group isn’t just smaller, it’s also become more diverse. To boost their numbers the Greens have welcomed five MEPs from Volt, a pan-European party that hasn’t made green issues a priority so far.
Plus, while the share of German and French MEPs shrank in the election, the group added lawmakers from Central and Eastern Europe, while its Nordic contingent remained strong.
With Greens from these regions often taking a less ideological approach, “perhaps that means we'll be more pragmatic in this mandate,” Cuffe said.
The election losses prompted “a bit of soul-searching” within the group, he added. “I think if we had come back with the same numbers, we would have been saying, ‘we must really increase climate efforts in the 2020s, this is the decade of change, we need to step up our ambition.’ But we didn't come back with the same numbers.
Split over VDL 2.0
The Greens tend to vote as a bloc in Brussels, and cracks in the united front they present to the public are rare. But some lawmakers worry that giving up on demands to join a broader coalition will tarnish their credibility, especially among their activist base.
Toussaint, the French MEP, was among those who think the Greens should keep their opposition role.
"As long as the mainstream political parties are not changing course, I do not think we have an interest to go into [this coalition],” she said. “It's in our interest to stay where we are — that is, not to take part in this coalition, which would ask us to support policies that are not our own.”
Toussaint's preference? “Keep fighting for every text … as we have done over the last few years.”
The Greens who want to join the centrist coalition say they won’t do so at any cost. But Toussaint said the Greens are still discussing their red lines internally — something Eickhout downplayed on Wednesday, pointing to the group’s agreed priorities.
Former Irish Green MEP Grace O’Sullivan, who lost her seat in June, said the group should only enter a coalition if von der Leyen gives “absolute assurances in writing, and a clear commitment and timescale with guarantees” on staying the course with the Green Deal — or risk losing even more support among voters. “I think we will be stronger outside.”
Newly elected Slovenian Green MEP Vladimir Prebilič also said he would not support von der Leyen’s reelection. If rolling back parts of the Green Deal is “the future strategy of the future Commission, I strongly believe we cannot play the game.”
But others say that within a coalition, the group can act as Green Deal guardians.
Outgoing EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius, who will take his seat as a Greens MEP next week, said his group “can definitely be part of a strong pro-European coalition, which would … ensure that the Commission has a strong mandate and has comfortable conditions to be ambitious” on climate and environmental policies.
“It would be really good for Europe that we have a bigger coalition,” said Gordan Bosanac, MEP for Možemo!, a new Croatian green party. “I don't think it can be devastating for the party if we see the long-term benefits for the Europeans.”
But, he conceded, joining a larger coalition “also then means more compromises.”
Defensive crouch
The question for the Greens is how much leverage the group can wield in such an alliance. Some wonder whether the group, which has effectively asked von der Leyen to choose them over the populist right next week, can still attach any conditions to their support.
“They evidently rely on our righteousness and pro-European position,” said Thomas Waitz, an Austrian MEP and co-president of the European Green Party, a continent-wide collection of green parties. “They’re knocking on our door, having already divided up key positions.”
Waitz doubts von der Leyen can give the Greens significant policy promises, and is focusing on ensuring more influence for the group. “Perhaps a commissioner from the Greens, or an openness to include Green personnel in commissioner cabinets,” he said, referencing the 26 commissioners that would oversee various policy portfolios for von der Leyen.
The group will always advocate more ambitious climate action, Waitz said, but argued the election result shows the Greens have yet to convince voters of the benefits.
The Greens’ climate focus should be on ensuring the laws passed over the last five years are implemented, he added. “I don’t like saying it, but it’s about keeping [the Green Deal] alive.”
Eickhout was more optimistic, believing the Greens could push a few policy changes on von der Leyen. The group wants better protection of marine environments and greater efforts to prepare the bloc for climate disasters, for example.
But many Greens echoed Waitz’s view that the group’s role was now defense rather than offense.
“Clearly there has been a move to the right, and the Greens have been the loser for that. I guess the question now is, what happens to the European Green Deal?” said Cuffe, the former Irish MEP.
“I just hope that our green commitments stay on track and don't go backwards. And that, I think, will be a key question for EU institutions in the years ahead — and, particularly for Ursula von der Leyen, in the days ahead.”
Marianne Gros contributed reporting and Hanne Cokelaere contributed graphics.
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