Can environmentalism ever survive party politics?
The Greens were supposed to be Europe’s new hope. At the twilight of the Trump era, their champions on both sides of the Atlantic argued that they would be the perfect antidote to the far-Right. Back then, the largest and most powerful Green Party in Europe was Germany’s, and it was said to be uniquely positioned to counter polarisation. According to liberal logic, the Greens would excite voters bored with Germany’s conventional centre-Right (CDU) and centre-Left (SDP), “stabilise” the political centre, and unite different segments of the electorate with their “hopeful message” and “outsider status”. A Green wave, it was hoped, would crush the rising populist tide.
