The Politics of the Environment: Ideas, Activism, Policy, 2nd Edition

Green parties

Table 4.1 Electoral performance of selected European green parties

Average % vote national elections

First Green

MP elected 1980s 1990s 2000–2006

Number of

MPsa

Austria 1986 4.0 6.0 10.3 21
Belgiumb 1981 5.9 10.9 5.6 4
Finland 1983 2.8 6.9 8.0 14
France 1997 1.1 7.2 4.4 3
Germany 1983 5.1c 6.3 8.4 51
Ireland 1989 1.0 2.1 3.7 6
Italy 1987 2.5 2.7 2.1 15
Luxembourg 1984 6.8 8.9 11.6 7
Netherlandsd 1990 – 5.0 5.6 7
Spain 2004 0.9 ∗∗ 1
Sweden 1988 2.9 4.3 4.9 19
Switzerland 1979 7.1 5.5 7.4 13
UK – 0.3 0.5 0.9 0

Notes:
aAt most recent election before January 2007.
bCombined results of Ecolo and Agalev/Groen!.
cThis figure refers to West German elections.
dThe figures refer to the Green Left, not the tiny De Groenen.
∗There are several Spanish Green lists, so it is difficult to estimate their tiny vote.

Source:Keesings Archives.

parliaments. The German and Belgian greens have proved most successful.
Germany boasts the largest and best-known green party, Die Gr ̈unen: it estab-
lished itself as the third strongest German political party at the 1994 fed-
eral election and it joined with the Social Democrats to form a coalition
government between 1998 and 2005.^1 The two Belgian green parties, the
Flemish-speaking Groen! (formerly called Agalev) and French-speaking Ecolo,
mirror the duplication of other Belgian parties on linguistic lines. After
entering parliament in 1981 they steadily increased support, gaining a
notable success in the 1999 election when a combined vote of 14.3 per
cent and 20 MPs propelled them into governing coalitions at federal and
sub-national levels. However, after four years in government both parties
suffered a resounding defeat at the 2003 election, with Ecolo obtaining just
four seats and Groen! failing to win a single seat. The Swiss Green Party
is established as the largest alternative party outside the four-party govern-
ment cartel.
In a second group of countries – Finland, France, Austria and the Nether-
lands – green parties did not average over 5 per cent of the vote in national