Greens to have pan-European focus for EU elections campaign strategy

This article is part of our special report Talking about the EU elections.

The Greens campaign strategy will have a strong European focus when compared with the other political parties, Terry Reintke, co-president of the Greens/EFA group at European Parliament told EURACTIV. 

“We want to run a real European election campaign where we come together as European Green parties in one big campaign, which I think is something the others are trying without succeeding as much as we have in the past” the EU lawmaker affirmed.

The next European elections will be held between 6 and 9 June 2024. The EU electoral law only sets a few minimum standards for member states, for instance, announcing election results on the same day, while for the rest, national legislation applies. For this reason, most of the parties prefer strong national campaigns rather than a pan-European one.

Despite the Green parties in member states being very “different” from each other, particularly in terms of the presence of elected members in different levels of government, “On topical issues, [we want] to have a very strong European focus” she said.

Priorities

As for what topics the group considers pivotal in the next EU elections, Reintke mentioned climate change and “how, with the Green Deal and a more ambitious path towards climate neutrality, we can still turn around all the negative implications that climate change is already having, and is going to have, if we do not do enough”.

She also said that “social justice” will be a priority.

“We see that there is a growing divide between rich and poor in our societies, and now even exacerbated by the crisis. So we want to talk about good working conditions, good wages, why the EU should have a stronger role there,” the MEP argued.

“And we are certainly going to speak about democracy,” Reintke said.

“Because from what we see in Europe, but also globally, democracy and freedom are under attack. And we want to send a very strong signal that we want to defend and even broaden democracy,” she added, specifying the importance of the battle against far-right parties, which are growing in popularity in Europe.

Spitzenkandidat

On the possibility of parties internally electing a candidate for the presidency of the EU Commission, the EU lawmaker confirmed that there is an agreement in principle within the party to start the process, but the official decision will be taken at the European Green Party Congress in Vienna on Friday 2 June.

Greens to elect a 'spitzenkandidat’ for next EU elections

The European Greens will officially elect a candidate for the European Commission presidency ahead of next May’s European elections, a process known as ‘spitzenkandidat’, a senior party source told EURACTIV on Friday (31 March).

More specifically, the Greens will likely confirm the election of two spitzenkandidaten, to guarantee equal gender representation.

“From our point of view, this Europeanises the European elections. And it obviously gives also then a more European focus in the public debate and the campaign,” the MEP added.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]