It is clear that without the Greens there will not be a stable pro-European majority in the European Parliament. The prominent politicians among the Greens emphasized their key topics,  such as: concrete measures in the fight against climate change, investment and social cohesion, as well as absolute commitment to human rights promotion, especially in the states where it is endangered. "Friday for Future" has become a recognizable method of new generation activists: from school benches they go to protest every Friday to point to the importance of combating climate change. It seems that some older citizens of Europe, who have the right to vote for the European Parliament, understood it well, which was proved at the polls.

This is how the results of the European Parliament elections, held in late May this year, can be interpreted, on which the parties gathered in the European Green Party achieved significant success. In the new convening of the European Parliament, there will be 74 MEPs gathered in the Green group - the European Free Alliance (Greens - EFA). It is 22 members more compared to the previous convocation, which makes this group the fourth in power in the European Parliament, and gives them a serious capital for the upcoming negotiations on forming a majority in the European Parliament and the election of a new President of European Commission. The most impressive result of the Greens was achieved in Germany, from which 21 members are going to Brussels and Strasbourg, which is almost twice as high as in the previous convocation. In this election, the Greens broke the second place in power, behind the ruling Christian Democratic Union, a leader among the parties gathered in the families of the European People's Party (EPP).

A good result was recorded in France, with 13% of the vote ending in third place behind the lists led by the parties of Marie Le Pen and President Emanuel Macron, so that 12 members from France will be in the new convocation.

In addition to Germany and France, green waves were felt in Finland (16%), Ireland (11%), Great Britain (almost 12%), as well as Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. In these member states, the Greens made growth in comparation to 2014 and they will have more European Parliament members than five years ago. In spite of the decent result of the greens in Austria (14%), the path to the European Parliament will make one MEP less than 2014 (2 instead of 3), while the drop is also noted in Sweden, from which two deputies will come to the new convening of the European Parliament instead of four like it was in 2014.

The Greens - consistent with its principles

Before we figure out where is the green wave taking us, it is necessary to briefly look at how this green wave, which overflowed Europe, first emerged.

In a campaign for these elections, the Greens, instead of one "prospective candidate," began with two candidates, more precisely female and male candidate - Ska Keller from Germany and Bas Eikhaut from the Netherlands, thus demonstrating adherence to the values ​​of equality. In the "Priorities" [1] they presented before these elections, they began with the theme of climate change, recognizing them as a key challenge of the time we live in. Transition to renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, abandonment the coal as energy resources and creation of new "green" jobs in regions that are economically vulnerable to such changes – is a key plan from the Greens to limit global temperature growth to 1.5 degrees Celsius. By the Report of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change [2],released last year, but still actual, we have 12 years for a decisive climate action and prevention of climate change, so the Green Party results across the EU show that voters recognized this issue as a priority. The issue of climate change  became relevant to other parties too, so they have highly positioned the green topic, although in that way they did not disturb the primacy of the Greens.

By standing strong on their principles, zhe greens have won for themselves the disappointed voters of the great, mainstream parties, primarily Social Democrats. After the global economic crisis, Social Democrats supported austerity measures, made remarkable concessions on human rights and migration. All this pushed the voters in the arms of the Greens.

Clear hints

Such a result of the Greens may not be a big surprise to those who are better connoisseurs of the European political spectrum. A series of changes at the European level were the elections held in the German province of Bavaria in October last year. The time has shown that the Bavarian elections were Europe in small, since the ruling Democrats recorded a historically bad result, losing the absolute majority, so the Greens climbed to the second place with a surprising 17% of the vote, while the Social Democrats experienced a historic decline, while the populist right-wing forces, in the case of Bavaria gathered in the Alternatives for Germany, continued to conquer more and more political space.

What is especially encouraging about the Greens is the structure of their voters. The results of the election survey in Germany, for example, showed that 30% of people under the age of 30 voted for the Greens. In addition, the majority of voters who went to the polls for the first time gave their trust to the parties from this group.

Green's states on climate change, public health conservation, air and water pollution, sustainable transport and other environmental issues are something that most voters identify with them. However, for this outcome, other aspects of their action and key values are very important ​​- equality, progressive tax policy, equal access to quality education, practices and jobs for young people, defense of asylum rights and the establishment of a safe passage for migrants and the last, but not less important - insisting on defending the rule of law and basic human rights.

A new structure of European forces

The impression was that on Monday, May 27, we woke up in a different Europe, since the largest party families for the first time lost an absolute majority. Thanks to the success of the Greens, in the new Europe there are still more pro-European forces, which will make two-thirds of the new convocation of the European Parliament. It is important to note that this was also contributed by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe - ALDE, which, thanks to their newcomer, Emanuel Macron and French Renesans, also achieved a historic result winning 106 seats.

It is clear that without the Greens there will not be a stable pro-European majority in the European Parliament. However, their participation in politics in the member states of the European Union has shown that they are ready to be constructive participants in various coalitions. Greens are already part of the government in Sweden and Luxembourg. Great chances are that the Greens will take their seats in the new Danish government. Good results in the Belgian parliamentary elections, held on the same day as the European Parliament elections, give them a strong position in the talks on the formation of the government there. Going back to crucial Germany - Greens take part in power in nine federal states and were part of negotiations for forming a government in Germany after the 2017 election.

The prominent politicians among the Greens, like the aforementioned Bas Eichhaut, as well as Sven Gigold, a Green European Parliamentarian from Germany, stressed that for them in the upcoming formation of the majority, the key topics are: the concrete measures in the fight against climate change, investment and social cohesion, and absolute commitment to the promotion of human rights, especially in the countries where it is endangered, such as Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Malta - in countries where right-wing populism is in turmoil and from which, in the new convening of the European Parliament, there will not be any deputies of the Greens.

Photo: canva.com 

Ognjan Pantić, Belgrade Open School