Greens make progress in elections in Switzerland, Slovenia and Poland

EGP Co-Spokesperson Ulrike Lunacek said: “I would like to congratulate Greens in Switzerland, Slovenia and Poland for their considerable achievements in the elections held on 21st October. In Switzerland, the EGP ‘s member party, the Green Party (Les Verts / Die Grüne) achieved a fantastic result in parliamentary elections : winning 20 seats in the House of Representatives , which is an increase of 7 seats and represents an impressive 9.6 % of the vote. Although the results from the elections to the Senate are incomplete, it is known that the Greens have won their first ever seat in the Senate. This is an excellent result, particularly when one considers that the Swiss election campaign was dominated by xenophobia and racism. The Swiss Greens are to be congratulated on running a campaign which emphasised the importance of tolerance and helping foreigners integrate into Swiss society. It is worth pointing out that among Swiss voters living abroad, the highest score achieved was that of Raphaël Thiemard, who obtained 2251 votes in the canton of Fribourg. Raphaël Thiemard lives in Belgium and is a member of Ecolo. This type of Pan-European candidacy is something that Greens are keen to build on in the future. In Slovenia, Darko Krajnc, of the EGP’s member party SMS, won 3.8% of the vote in the first round of the presidential elections. This is a considerable achievement as it is much more than most commentators expected and represents a real breakthrough for SMS which we hope will mean that SMS will again be able to be represented in parliament after next year’s parliamentary elections.”

EGP Co-Spokesperson Philippe Lamberts continued: “In Poland, the Greens(Zieloni 2004) were disadvantaged in the general election because of an unfair electoral system which requires candidates to garner a huge number of signatures before they can even stand for election. However, in the Silesia region, the Greens’ candidate in the Senatorial election, Monika Paca, managed to obtain approximately 5% of the vote (around 21,000 votes). This is a very positive result and Monika was able to increase her support as the campaign went on. One feature of the Polish elections which is worth pointing out is the high turnout of around 54 %, which is the highest turnout since 1989 and bodes well for Polish democracy. We very much hope that the new government of the Civic Platform Party reverses some of the regressive legislation of the previous administration and ensures that Poland plays a more constructive role in the EU than has recently been the case. It is also vitally important that the new government makes the recognition of civil liberties and an open-minded society a key priority in their programme for government, thus reversing the repressive tendencies of the Kaczynski government. ”

Graham Burgess
Communications Officer
European Green Party