Instead, in all these cities Green parties won the highest number of votes, spearheading a continent-wide surge that looks likely to transform their political role within Europe. Coming top of the polls felt “alien” to Dublin’s new MEP Ciarán Cuffe, the first Green party representative the city has sent to Europe in two decades. Just a couple of years ago, polling suggested the Greens were likely to lose around half their seats in Brussels. Young people skewed heavily towards Green parties across countries where they did well. “We do actually have member parties in most member states, but they don’t get over the threshold [to win seats],” Reintke said of eastern European Greens.

Source: The Guardian June 02, 2019 07:52 UTC