A Green Comeback in Greece? the Ecologist Greens in the 2007 Parliamentary Election

One of the most prominent features of environmental politics in Greece has been the weakness of Green political organisations (Weale et al. 2000, p. 252). The first serious Green electoral bid occurred in 1989. Helped by proportional representation and widespread discontent with the established parties (Karamichas and Botetzagias 2003, p. 73), the Ecologist Alternatives participated in the November 1989 and April 1990 elections gaining 0.6 and 0.8% of the vote respectively, and one parliamentary seat. But their success was short-lived: pronounced factionalism and the conflict over the issue of recognising the neighbouring republic as Macedonia destroyed the party organisation. The Green MP resigned from the party and became independent while the party ‘withered away’ (Karamichas and Botetzagias 2003, p. 87) before the parliamentary term was over. The 3% threshold for parliamentary representation established in 1993 made it even harder to sustain Green political organisations. Various groups have tried to earn representation in the parliament, but with little success. The last of these was Prasini Politiki (Green Politics), a member of the European Federation of Green Parties which became quite visible through its activism (Karamichas and Botetzagias 2003, p. 88). In December 2002 Prasini Politiki, along with other environmental groups and individual activists, participated in the founding congress of the Ecologist Greens. The merger of these groups into a single party opened expectations for a Green comeback in the Greek party system. Having sat out the 2004 parliamentary election, the Ecologist Greens nevertheless ran for the 2004 European Parliament (EP) election held two months later. The party did not obtain any MEPs, but the 40,873 votes (0.67%) sustained hopes for success. In the 2006 local elections, the party selectively supported candidates in cooperation with leftist parties. It also ran independent lists in Athens and Thessaloniki and got two of its candidates elected to the Thessaloniki Prefecture Council with 4.6% of the vote.