Green vote lifts in Germany

The German Greens are very happy with

yesterday’s election result

, with their vote rising from 8.1% in 2005 to 10.5%.

Interesting, while the Green vote rose significantly, the Social Democrat vote

fell to its lowest post-war level

, 23%. The big rise in the Green vote in France in the last European election was also paralleled by a collapse in the Socialist vote.

Shifting towards the centre doesn’t seem to have helped social democratic parties in either Germany or France. The beneficiaries have been not only been the Greens, but also parties to the left of the social democrats (like the German Left Party, which picked up 12.1% of the vote yesterday).

The secret of the German Green advance has been the marrying of a bold environmental agenda (against nuclear power and for a renewable energy economy by 2030) with strong social policies (a higher minimum wage, higher benefits and higher taxes on top earners, an end to tuition fees, and better data privacy protection).

The German result is another illustration of how Green parties make up ground during the election period – whatever the vagaries of polling between elections.