Climate change and protecting the environment are a major public concern across the world. But while in northern European countries green or environmentalist parties are enjoying great success, in Spain the so-called ‘green vote’ continues to develop slowly EURACTIV’s partner El Diario reports.
Historically, it has been in the European elections where ecological parties have performed best. In 2019, The Greens won 70 seats in the European Parliament and consolidated themselves as the fourth political force, and a key partner when forging alliances.
However, this group of environmentalists includes very few members from southern European countries. Spain supplies only two MEPs to the European Greens Group – Diana Riba, from ERC, and Ernest Urtasun, from En Comú Podem -; Portugal, one, but Italy and Greece, not a single one. This contrasts with the 25 green MEPs in Germany and 13 in France.
Speaking to EFE, Juan López de Uralde, former executive director of Greenpeace, and a Spanish MP, pinpoints the Spanish electoral system as the reason for the failure of Green parties to win seats. “The difficulty we have had historically is that new options are punished much more, especially if you don’t have, as Vox had, funding. We didn’t have that,” he laments. “What ensured our success was our alliance policy,” Uralde acknowledges.
But the parliamentarian is still optimistic.
“The green vote in Spain is going to grow as awareness of the seriousness of the ecological crisis grows,” he says.
Fellow deputy Inés Sabanés, for her part, believes that the environmental movement in Spain has had “a different pace and handling”. In her opinion, “we are lagging years behind in terms of sustainability policies”.
Narciso Michavila, president and founder of GAD3, and an expert on public opinion polls, claims that “in general, the green vote tends to come from people who already have their primary vital needs covered and can now take a step further”.
José Pablo Ferrándiz, director of Public Opinion and Political Studies at Ipsos Spain, believes that “the green vote in Spain has been very fragmented”.
“There has been more than one green party that has not obtained good results because here single-issue policies, or single-issue parties, such as the ecologists or PACMA, do not have much room,” he said.
The reason is that “there are always other issues in citizens’ top concerns that outweigh ‘green’ or animalist issues”. He also believes that the green vote in Spain “is mostly young”.
“And I think that concern for the environment is growing,” he adds.
Source: euractiv.com
