The 1999 European Elections - another breakthrough for the Greens

By Thomas Dietz

Twenty years ago, in June 1979, the first elections to the European
parliament were held. The results for the few, at that time only loosely
organised green lists contesting the elections were already considerable, but
not good enough to send any representatives to the European Parliament. Ten
years later the greens could achieve an almost sensational breakthrough. In
1999, they could even top this success, although, after the mixed results in
1994, almost nobody had believed that this could be possible. What were the
reasons for this success? Was it just an intermezzo in an ongoing process of
stagnation or was it 1994, that was only a short setback? What effects will the
results have for the work of the new Green group in the European parliament and
its cooperation with the European Federation of Green Parties?

1. The
general results

Although the Maastricht and the Amsterdam treaty have extended the
rights of the European parliament considerably European elections still have
the character of so-called second order elections, where, according to most
people's view, not much is at stake. For example, in the European parliament,
in contrast to national parliaments, no government is elected or kept in power
by a permanent coalition of political parties (for example a red-green or a
conservative-liberal coalition) and for most people Europe still doesn't seem
to influence very much their daily life (although in fact, it does considerably).
Thus, it is more likely for voters, which usually stick to a certain political
party, but that are disappointed by the policy of this party on the national
level, to vote for another party at the European elections. This gives them the
possibility to express their dissatisfaction in a visible way without harming
the party's position on the national level. As another consequence of this
"nothing-at-stake"-mentality the turnout at the European elections is usually
very low, giving the protest votes even more weight.

Since 1979 the greens have always profited from this phenomenon. Their
election results on the European level have almost always exceeded their
results on the national level. In so far, good results for green parties at
European elections are nothing new. But this time, the greens in Belgium and
Austria obtained thirty percent more votes than in 1994, in Finland and Great
Britain they could double and in France and in the Netherlands they could even
triple their results.

All in all, in almost half of the fifteen EU-countries the greens could
either improve their results considerably (if not to say sensationally)
compared to 1994 (Finland, Belgium, Austria, Netherlands, France, Great
Britain) or could at least keep them (Luxembourg). In the countries, where the
results for the green parties were declining, they either still obtained a remarkable
share of votes (Germany, Sweden, Ireland) or could at least defend their seats
in the European parliament (Italy). Only in Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Greece
it was (once again) not possible to gain parliamentary representation. Table 1
gives a detailed survey of the respective results, also under a longitudinal
perspective.
Table 1: European Election results for the green parties (1979-1999)

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<![endif]>

Country

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

Party

1979

1984/87
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[1]
<![endif]>

1989

1994/95
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[2]
<![endif]>

1999

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

% Seats

Austria

Grüne Alternative

6,8 (1)

9,3 (2)

Belgium

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

ECOLO
AGALEV

5,1 (0)
2,3 (0)

9,9 (1)
7,1 (1)

16,6 (2)
12,2 (1)

13,0 (1)
10,7 (1)

22,3 (3)
12 (2)

Denmark

De Grønne
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[3]
<![endif]>

- (0)

Germany

Die GRüNEN/B
'90

3,2 (0)

8,2 (7)

8,4 (8)

10,1 (12)

6,4 (7)

Finland

Vihreπ Liitto

7,6 (1)

13,4 (2)

France

Les Verts

4,4
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[4]
<![endif]>
(0)

3,4 (0)

10,6 (9)

2,9
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[5]
<![endif]>
(0)

9,7 (9)

Greece

Politiki
Oikologia

1,1 (0)

0,3
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[6]
<![endif]>
(0)

- (0)

Great Britain

Green Party

0,1 (0)

14,9 (0)

3,2 (0)

6,2 (2)

Ireland

Comhaontas
Glas

0,5 (0)

3,7 (0)

7,9 (2)

6,7 (2)

Italy

I Verdi
Verdi Arcobaleno

-
-

3,8 (3)
2,4 (2)

3,2 (3)
-

1,8 (2)

Luxembourg

Dei Greng

1,0
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[7]
<![endif]>
(0)

6,1 (0)

10,4
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[8]
<![endif]>
(0))

10,9
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[9]
<![endif]>
(1)

10,7 (1)

Netherlands

Groen Links
De Groenen

-
-

5,6
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[10]
<![endif]>
(2)
1,3 (0)

7,0
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[11]
<![endif]>
(2)
-

3,8 (1)
2,4 (0)

11,9 (4)

Portugal

Os Verdes
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[12]
<![endif]>

- (0)

- (1)

- (0)

Spain

Los Verdes

0,6 (0)

1,1
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[13]
<![endif]>
(0)

-
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[14]
<![endif]>
(0)

1,4 (0)

Sweden

Miljöpartiet

17,2 (4)

9,4 (2)

Total

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

(0)

(11)

(28)

(27)

(38)

2. The results in detail

Although in spring 1999 there were some important European issues
attracting a lot of media coverage (especially the Kosovo-conflict and the withdrawal
of the European commission), it were again the national issues determining the
electoral campaigns and the outcome of the European elections. For the greens
and their electorate, however, the Kosovo-conflict played an important role.
Some green parties internally suffered severely from the fact, that a military
intervention in Kosovo was supported by the governments they participated in.
The way, the respective green electorate coped with this, differed
considerably, however.

In Germany, for
example, it was clear since the beginning of spring that the 1999 elections
would be the first European elections to be lost by the greens. The missing
success concerning the phasing out of nuclear power, the impression of being
only a junior partner in the red-green coalition and the active role of the
green german foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, at that time having the
EU-council-presidency, in the Kosovo-conflict, gave the electorate and the
party members the impression that the german greens were betraying their own
ideals. As a result a part of the green electorate stayed at home or voted for
the successor of the former east-german communist party, the PDS (Party of
democratic socialism), that managed to be represented in the European Parliament
for the first time.

The greens in Sweden couldn't
repeat the sensational success of 1994, either. At that time one of the scarce
poltical forces being against Sweden's adhesion to the EU, they could score the
best result for a green party on the national level ever. This time, the
swedish parties were in general much more EU-sceptical, making the protest
voters not exclusively focussing on Milj˘partiet any more. The electoral
campaign of the greens was focussed on questions of the common foreign and
security policy of the EU and on a new referendum on EU-membership and European
monetary union.

In Italy the
greens have faced a gradual decline of their electoral results since 1989, not
only at the European level. The ongoing existence of Marco Panella and its
several parties and lists competing with the greens and the missing exchange
of elites at the top of the party for a longer period of time now have
made the
greens lose their attractivity for the young voters (voting for Panella this
time). Moreover, at least according to the point of view of some observers,
during the last years the greens have neglected ecological issues focussing on
matters of civil rights instead, making them lose also their traditional
electorate. Since there was no extraordinary event in Italy during the
electoral campaign, that could change the mood in favour of the greens, one
could say, a bit sarcastic though, for the greens it was ãbusiness as usualÒ.

In Ireland,
Comhaontas Glas focussed its electoral campaign on the anti-nuclear-issue and
on genetically manipulated organisms (GMOs). Since people in Irleland typically
vote on local issues, however, and since the established parties led a campaign
against the greens, it was not possible for them to keep or even to improve
their 1994 results. They could keep their second seat in the EP, however.

In Luxembourg the
European elections were held together with the national elections, giving the
European elections an even more subordinate character and making the retirement
policy the most salient topic instead. Although green topics were more in the
background Dei Greng still obtained a very good result, since there was a
competing green list, headed by Jupp Weber. Ex-member of the greens and ex-MEP,
he left the green group in the European parliament in the middle of last
legislature to join another group, the radical alliance. His list scored about
1,4% of the votes.

In Belgium the
national elections fell together with the European ones, too. In their campaign
AGALEV and ECOLO focussed on traditional green topics, especially on questions
of environment and health. The scandal on dioxine-contaminated meat and eggs
came right in the middle of their campaign. This scandal left the belgian
people shocked and filled with indignation. Together with the Dutroux-affair,
which had catastrophic impacts on the image of the political establishment in
Belgium, too, this brought the greens a lot of votes from socialist and
christian-democrat partisans. The fact, that the man, who revealed the scandal
on the European commission, Paul Buitenen, was a green partisan, surely gave
the greens a push, too.

In the Netherlands it
was probably the charismatic party leader Rosenm˘ller, widely seen as the ãrealÒ opposition
leader in the dutch parliament and the focussing of Groen Links on the fight
against fraud and nepotism on the European, but also on the
national level, that helped the greens to triple their result compared to the
last election. In 1994, they missed their second seat very closely, in 1999,
as
a good example of justice, they gained their fourth one as close as five years
ago.

For the European elections in Great Britain the traditional first-past-the-post system was
replaced by a representational system for the first time ever. Together with
the low turnout (only 23%) and the controversy on GMOs in british public, this
fact made the greens gain two seats in the European parliament for the first
time
<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[15]
<![endif]>
.

In Austria the
greens "profited" from the Kosovo-conflict. Although Austria was not directly
involved, the social democratic chancellor Klima supported a military
intervention. This was strictly rejected by the greens, having a mobilising
effect on their electorate. Moreover, in their electoral campaign the greens
concentrated on a constructive approach of criticism towards the EU hitting the
mood of the austrian population very precisely. Another point, that probably
helped the greens, was that Johannes Voggenhuber, MEP and head of the electoral
list, revealed a big scandal, in which the austrian social democrats were
involved.

In Finland the
good result was partly due to the low turnout (only 30%), but also to the popularity
of the finish MEP Heidi Hautala. She scored 115.000 personal votes, the highest
amount of personal votes from all the candidates.

Thanks to the charismatic head of their electoral list, Daniel
Cohn-Bendit, the greens in France had a sensational breakthrough compared
to the 1994 elections. In comparison to the 1989 elections, however, they almost
scored the same result.
Apart from Daniel Cohn-Bendit it was probably the good work of the green-left
coalition in France, making a green handwriting visible (phasing-out of
Superph≥nix, stop of the Rhine-Rhone-Channel, introduction of eco-taxes), that
helped mobilising the green partisans and made a lot of people vote for the
greens for the first time.

In Spain the
situation was complicated like always before, although this time the various
green lists and regional sections of Los Verdes managed to contest the
elections nation-wide, standing on a common list together with various small
regionalist left parties. In spite of this common list the struggles between
the various regional sections of Los Verdes went on continuously until the day
of the elections. In the end a spanish green representation in the European
parliament was as near as never before. Only 3.000 votes were missing.

In Portugal the
greens were standing on a common list with smaller left parties, too. In the
very bipolarised political system of Portugal and in absence of some events
that could bring green topics more to the conscious of the people, the greens
didn't manage to gain a seat in the EP.

In Denmark De
Grønne
contested the elections on two different lists. One candidate was placed
on the June
movement's list, a political coalition against the further integration of Denmark
into the EU, the two other candidates stood on the list ãPeople's movement
against the ECÒ, a coalition of several smaller groups, that want Denmark to
leave the EU. Both lists had respectable results (15,9 and 7,3%), but no green
candidate managed to get a seat. The SF, an observer party of the EFGP scored
7,1% and gained one seat. Due to close links of SF to the scandinavian left
parties, its representative decided to join the communist/nordic green left
group, however.

In Greece the
Kosovo-conflict was a big issue during the electoral campaign, but the greens
weren't supported by the peace-movement, since they were made responsible for
the policy of Joschka Fischer. So, facing insufficient support and also
suffering from financial problems, contesting the European elections didn't
seem to make much sense for the greek greens. Consequently they decided not to
take part this time.

<![if !supportLists]>
3.

<![endif]>
The
composition of the new green group

All
in all, twelve green parties from eleven EU-countries could send 38 representatives
to the European Parliament, 11 more than five (four)
years ago
(see table 2 and 3). Although, like in 1989 und 1994, there would have been
enough deputies to establish a "pure: green group, the newly elected MEPs
decided to enlarge their group by 10 MEPs from regionalist parties (four from
Spain, two from Belgium, two from Scotland and two from Wales). Thus, this new
group, called The Greens/European Free Alliance (EFA), has become the fourth
strongest political force in the European Parliament. As Group presidents Heidi
Hautala and Paul Lannoye were elected, Vice-presidents became Nelly Maes (EFA),
Danielle Auras and Joost Lagendijk. Heide Rühle from the german greens is the
new treasurer of the group.

Table 2: Number of seats for the greens in the EP and their "weight" within
the group

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<![endif]>

1984

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

1989

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

1994

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

1999

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

Country

Party

Seats

seats

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

Austria

Grüne Alternative

Belgium

ECOLO

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

AGALEV

Germany

Die GRüNEN/B Ô90

Finland

Vihreπ Liitto

France

Les Verts

Great Britain

Green Party

Ireland

Comhaontas Glas

Italy

I Verdi

Luxembourg

Dei Greng

Netherlands

Groen Links

Portugal

Os Verdes

Sweden

Miljöpartiet

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

Total

Green MEPs

100

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

Regionalists

<![if !supportEmptyParas]>

<![endif]>

Table 3: The newly elected MEPs

Party

MEP

Grüne
Alternative

Johannes Voggenhuber; Mercedes
Echerer

ECOLO
AGALEV

Monica Frassoni; Paul Lannoye;
Pierre Jonckheer
Patsy Sorensen; Lucas van der Taelen

Die
GRüNEN/B
'90

Heide
Rühle; Friwi Graefe zu Baringdorf; Hiltrud Breyer; Wolfgang Kreissl-Dürfler; Ilka Schröder; Ozan Ceyhun; Elisabeth
Schroedter

Vihreπ Liitto

Heidi Hautala; Matti Wuori

Les Verts

Daniel Cohn-Bendit; Marie-Anne
Isler-Beguin; Alain Lipietz; H≥l≤ne Flautre; G≥rard Onesta; Danielle Auroi;
Didier-Claude Rod; Alima Boumedienne-Thiery; Yves Pietrasanta

Green Party

Jean Lambert; Caroline Lucas

Comhaontas
Glas

Patricia Mckenna; Nuala Ahern

I Verdi

Reinhold Messner; Giorgio Celli

Dei
Greng

Claude Turmes

Groen Links

Joost
Lagendijk; Kathalijne Buitenweg; Alexander de Roo; Theo Bouwman

Miljöpartiet

Per
Gahrton; Inger Schörling

To incorporate MEPs from other ideological party families
or some of
the so-called "non-inscrits" has a long history in the European parliament. By
enlarging the group more money and more posts can be obtained, giving the group
more possibilities to influence the agenda of the parliament and to present
their policy to the public. On the other hand some conflicts might arise
between MEPs (or their respective parties) coming from the same country. For
example, in 1989 Los Verdes had some problems with a spanish regionalist MEP,
being member of the green group and in 1992 the scandinavian green parties were
strongly concerned about the membership of an MEP from the danish Socialist
People's party in the Green group. Regarding the composition of the new group
possible conflicts could arise between the green parties in Great Britain,
Belgium and Spain and the respective regionalist deputies in the group. It
remains to be seen, if this new situation can be handled sufficiently or if
this might lead to permanent trouble.

As far as trouble with certain national delegations is concerned, the
relatively equilibrated composition of the new group seems to avoid this
phemomenon of the 1984-1989 and 1994-1999 legislature. During these periods of
time, the green group was very strongly dominated by the german national
delegation (see table 3). This delegation showed permanent internal problems,
having a bad influence also on the group activities.

4. The group
cooperation with the EFGP

After a very difficult relationship in the beginning (i.e. the
1984-1989 legislature) the coordination and cooperation activities of the Green
group in the European parliament and the European Greens have been extended continously
since 1989. The common platform for the 1994 European elections and several
common seminars or meetings on topics of mutual interest are very good examples
for the good cooperation between the two since the beginning of the nineties.
In spite of the fact, that one fourth of the members of the new Green/EFA group
does not come from EFGP-member parties, there is no reason to assume, that this
cooperation could be reduced within the next five years. On the contrary, the
forthcoming enlargement of the EU and several other topics will make this
cooperation more necessary than ever. The group has already signalised, that
it is very much interested in a continued close cooperation, especially
as far
as
the enlargement process is concerned. A new challenge, however, will be the
cooperation of both the Green group and the EFGP with the green members of the
respective national governments and the first green commissioner, Michaele
Schreyer. Miss Schreyer, member of the German Greens, is responsible for the
EU-budget, for budget control and anti-fraud measures.

5. The second breakthrough of the greens - Intermezzo or steady
trend?

How can the results of the 1999 elections for the greens be
interpreted? Was it only an intermezzo or part of a steady trend?

In most states of southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Greece) and in
Denmark the greens have failed once again to send representatives to the
European parliament. Together with the bad results of I Verdi in Italy this
seems to reflect a steady trend, indeed, although a negative one. In countries
where the ecological question has not yet reached a sufficient salience, at
least in the eyes of the population, and in countries, where other parties have
already occupied green topics (Panella in Italy, SF in Denmark), no strategy
has been elaborated so far, how to improve the results for the green parties
there. So one does not have to be a prophet to predict, that the outcome of the
next European elections for these parties will probably be the same.

For
the rest of the European Union one must contest, that in the meantime green parties
have become part of the establishment, at least as far
as their electoral results are concerned. They have stabilised on a high or at
least considerable level, usually guaranteeing parliamentary representation in
the European Parliament. For the extent of this representation long-term (party
identification) as well as short-term (candidate and issue voting) factors have
to be taken into account. As far as the party identification is concerned, a
lot of further research work has to be done to find out, how big the "permanent" electorate
of the greens has become in the meantime. Candidate and issue-voting on the other
hand will always remain unpredictable. As it seems,
these two short-term factors were mainly responsible for the success of most
and for the loss of votes of some green parties at the 1999 European elections.
So it might have been both. Steady trend because of growing
party-identification and intermezzo because of special conditions
(Kosovo-conflict, dioxine-scandal, charismatic party representatives). We'll
know more in only five years.

<![endif]>

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[1]
<![endif]>
In Portugal and Spain the first European elections were held in 1987.

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[2]
<![endif]>
In Finland, Sweden and Austria the first European elections were held
in 1995.

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[3]
<![endif]>
Part of the list People's movement against the ECÒ.

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[4]
<![endif]>
Result for the list "Europe Ecologie".

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[5]
<![endif]>
Result for the common list of Les Verts, Société protectrice des
animaux (SPA) and Ecologie Autrement.

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[6]
<![endif]>
Result for the "Federation of ecological-alternative organisations".

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[7]
<![endif]>
Result for the "Alternative Lescht - Wehrt Ich" (AL-WI).

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[8]
<![endif]>
Results for GAP and GLEI

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[9]
<![endif]>
Common list of GLEI und GAP.

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[10]
<![endif]>
Result for the "Groen Progessief Akkoord" (GPA).

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[11]
<![endif]>
Result for the list "Groen Links/Regenboog".

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[12]
<![endif]>
Contesting the elections on the list of the CDU respectively.

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[13]
<![endif]>
Result for the "Lista Verde", consisting of Los Verdes and Confederacion de Los Verdes.

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[14]
<![endif]>
Los Verdes didn;t contest the elections nationwide that year.

<![if !supportFootnotes]>
[15]
<![endif]>
One of the two elected
MEPs, Jean Lambert, had been member of the green group in the European
parliament between 1989 und 1992 already. This was only an internal agreement
between the green group and the European Greens, however (due to the
sensational success of the green party at the 1989 elections), giving Jean
Lambert only internal voting rights but not the right to participate in the
plenary sessions of the European parliament, for example.

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The 1999 European Elections - another breakthrough for the Greens