The Greens/EFA party is seemingly oblivious to what voters in Europe want and may have just shot itself in the foot just five months ahead of the EU elections.
The party’s new manifesto for June’s EU Parliament elections, adopted at its congress on Sunday, February 4th, sets ambitious climate targets that are even more radical than what the Brussels mainstream wants. Instead of the currently decided deadline for reaching net zero by 2050, the Greens advocate for 100% renewable energy use and “full climate neutrality” by 2040.
“Europe can and must take steps to go beyond a 55% reduction in emissions by 2030 and achieve full climate neutrality by 2040,” the manifesto reads, calling for a dramatically revised EU climate law.
Phasing out fossil fuels, in the long run, is not a radical idea, but doing it solely by relying on renewables is not a wise one either. The Greens’ manifesto not only disregards but actively argues against the involvement of nuclear power, the only clean, secure, and truly affordable alternative that could help make the green transition feel less like economic suicide.
“We want to transform our energy system to rely 100% on solar, water, wind, and geothermal, phasing out fossil energy by 2040,” the document says. “We will fight to revise the [EU’s] Green Taxonomy to make sure that gas and nuclear are not greenwashed as ‘sustainable.’”
If anything, the recent polls should have been enough for the Greens to take the hint. Europeans no longer want a radical green transition that makes everyone poorer for a few decades—as evidenced by the Greens’ evaporating voter base. The German wing of the party recently made this realization and began to soften its stance on climate targets, but it seems it remains a minority within the party family.
If the election was today, the Greens/EFA group would end up with 45 MEPs, 27 (or over a third) less than they currently have. If this trajectory keeps up until June, the only green transformation will be the party’s—from fourth-largest to sixth.
But even if the Greens don’t read polling data, they could have simply looked out the window. Angry and disaffected farmers from several countries laid siege to the European Parliament in Brussels last week, making it clear that they not only have a beef with their own governments but the EU as a whole. And besides Brussels’ unfair trade agreements, green policies were the most obvious reason.
Of course, the Greens’ manifesto addresses the farmers’ struggle as well, only that it doesn’t think the rushed green transition has anything to do with it. Instead, it claims that in order for farmers to be able to make a decent living, the EU needs a “fundamental shift” toward a new agricultural model that “reduces emissions, protects the environment, and fosters social justice” by eliminating diesel subsidies and instead funding organic farming, while also encouraging the “transition to more plant-based diets.”
Climate goals, therefore, are the focus of the Greens’ desired agricultural policies as well. Nonetheless, the party acts like it was fighting for farmers all along. “Farmers are suffering across Europe,” Greens Spokesman Alex Johnson said last Friday in reply to the protests in Brussels, drawing strange conclusions: “We must fix the social and economic aspects of the system so that we can help farmers adapt to the massive challenge of climate change.”
And if this wasn’t enough, the manifesto even paints a clear picture of who the number one enemy of the planet is. “Unlike the conservatives and the far right, who want to delay and deny the problems before us, we will act with the full urgency of our times,” the document says.
“Far-right parties are gaining ground with their tried and trusted tactics of spinning half-truths and scapegoating minorities,” it goes on, making sure to portray the coming conservative revival in Brussels as a ‘far-right’ play at democracy, using the Left’s preferred bogeyman to advocate for more centralization and a ‘federal’ EU.
“This conservative backlash is working strategically to roll back our rights and freedoms,” the document says. “We are convinced that the European Union needs to be more united to tackle our shared problems. We call for a federal European Union with increased powers, deep democracy, and real transparency and accountability.”
Fortunately, the Greens will not play a major role during the next legislative term in Brussels. Unfortunately, however, the rest of the leftist parties are not so different. The balance of power still depends on how much the conservative forces can truly grow, but we’ll find out soon enough.
