Editor: last update July 4, 1996; index

Developments in Green politics in 1995

Since January the Green Group in the European Parliament has three new members from Sweden, Austria and Finland. All three parties are members of the European Federation of Green parties. SF from Denmark has left the Green Group for the fraction of mostly communist parties United European Left/Nordic Green Left.

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen had a good result in the German state Hessen at February 19th. Their result rose from 8,8% to 11,2%. They form again a coalition with the SPD in which they get the department of justice held by Von Plottnitz beside the environment department they already had.

On March 19th there were Parliamentary elections in Finland. Vihreä Liitto got 6,5% and 9 seats (1991: 6,8% and 10 seats). The Ecological Party entered the parliament with 0,3% and one seat. Vihreä Liitto takes now part in the government led by the Social Democrats.

Also on March 19th there were local council elections in the province of Lower Austria. The Greens increased their share of the vote.

In April there were elections for the parliament of the Kantons Zürich and Ticino in Switzerland. The Grüne Partei Schweiz lost in Zürich 4 seats and kept 16, but had success in winning a seat in the seven member Kantonal Cabinet.

On April 23rd was the first round of the presidential elections in France. Dominique Voynet was the candidate of Les Verts. She received 3,3% with 1005280 votes (Le Monde). In 1988 Antoine Waechter got 3,8% with 1149642 votes.

At the same day there were regional, provincial en local elections in Italy. Federazione dei Verdi received around 2,9% of the votes and got seats in nearly every region. The Greens form a coalition with the centre-left parties and these coalitions won in most regions and provinces.

At May 4th the Green Party took part in local elections throughout England and Wales except London. The small parties received no more than 4% of the votes. Nevertheless the number of seats for the Green Party rose in the contested area from 17 to 22.

At May 14th there were Landestag elections in the German states Nordrhein-Westfalen and Bremen. Bündnis 90/Die Grünen performed very well. A doubling of the share of votes in the largest Bundesland NRW to 10,1%. In Bremen the result grew a few percent to 13,1%. The FDP didn't reach the threshold. In NRW the Greens reached an agreement with the SPD about the forming of a coalition. In Bremen the members of the SPD rejected a possible coalition with the Greens and is a grand-coalition formed between the SPD and the CDU.

In the night after her 84th birthday died Annie M.G. Schmidt, born in Kapelle in the province of Zeeland at May 20th 1911. Among the numerous prices she won for her youth literature was the H.C. Andersen price. She participated three times as a candidate for De Groenen on a non-electable place.

May 21st there were parliamentary elections in Belgium. The green parties Agalev and Ecolo made a poor result. Agalev got around 7% and Ecolo around 10%. They lost some seats.

At May 28th there were local and regional elections in Spain. Els Verds, the green party in Catalonia, made a good result in alliance with a leftist party and got 12 municipal seats, including one in Barcelona. Their best result was in the large cities.

At May 29th elections for the Dutch senate took place. The senate is elected by the provincial councillors with a weight election. De Groenen formed an alliance with provincial parties. Our candidate, Marten Bierman, was on the second place and has been elected by a preference-vote.

June 9th - 11th the third Council of the Federation of European Green Parties was held in Budapest. The Council couldn't agree about who should be Secretary-General. There was a stalemate between Bruno Boissièrre (Les Verts) end Anne de Boer (GroenLinks). The Council nominated Ralph Monö (Miljöpartiet de Gröna) as interim-Secretary General.

Les Verts participated in municipal elections at June 11th and 18th. The Greens got 6,5% of the votes (1989 9,5%).

At July 4th we shook up from the unexpected death of Alexander Langer (Federazione dei Verdi), co-president of the Green Group in the European Parliament. He is succeeded in the Green Group by Gianni Tamino.

At July 27th-30th the Green Party USA held the 1995 National Green Conference at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. More than 250 greens from 27 states, Canada, Australia and Niger attended the conference. Foreign guests included Christobel Chamarette, one of two Green senators in Australia, and Adamou Garba of Niger, co-ordinator of Africa's 21 Green parties.

The green parties of Australia and New Zealand sent at August 4th a petition to president Chirac of France to review his decision to resume nuclear test at Moruroa. It is endorsed by 67 Green parties. Of these 11 came from West Africa and 6 from South-America.

At August 9th the Progressive Green Party was launched in New Zealand. This party is the result of a split in the Green Party there.

At September 11th Miljøpartiet de Grønne (Norway) took part in local elections. The party performed stable with 0,4% of the votes, 1 county seat and 8 community seats.

At September 17th the first direct elections for the European Parliament took place in Sweden. The Greens performed well with 17,2% and 4 seats.

October 1: two seats for Greens in parliamentary elections in Portugal and no seats in Latvia.

At 22 October the Greens won 13,2% of the votes in Berlin. They are now the largest party in "Bezirk" Kreuzberg, where they got two "Direktmandate".

At 22 October Grüne/Parti Vert received 5% of the votes and lost 6 of their 14 seats in the Federal Parliament in Switzerland. In Kanton Bern the Greens lost 3 of their 4 seats. Grünes Bündnis got there one seat.

At October 29th the party of president Tudjman received around 50% of the seats at parliamentary elections in Croatia.

At October 30 the people of Quebec voted with a small majority (50,57% against 49,43%) against breaking up the Canadian state.

November 5 the presidential and parliamentary elections took place in Georgia. Shevernadze has been re-elected and the Citizens Union became the largest party. The Greens form a faction within this union.

Linda Martin of the Green Party USA, who co-ordinated the Third Parties '96 conference in Washington DC on June 1-4, announced plans for a second round in DC on January 5-7, which could be a presidential nominating convention. A planning meeting would take place in Boulder, Colorado, on November 17-19.

November 19 former communist Aleksandr Kwasniewski has been elected as the new president of Poland, defeating Lech Walensa.

November 12 and 26 were parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. Monitors of the Council of Europe judged the election as unfair.

At November 27 Ralph Nader announced to be the Green (GPUSA) candidate in the Californian Primary.

At their first meeting the Georgian parliament elected former Europan Green co-secretary Zurab Zvania as speaker of the parliament.

November 29 were parliamentary elections in Belarus and Egypt.

December 2 were parliamentary elections in Taiwan.

In December Jup Weber (Dei Greng) left the Green Group for the European Radical Alliance.

At 17 December there were parliamentary elections in Russia and in Austria. The Greens in Austria won 4,81% of the votes (1994 7,31%) and 9 seats (1994 13).

The developments in 1996
The index