Wednesday, 12 July 2023

An Impending European 'Greenlash'?

Nathalie Tocci thinks a 'greenlash' is brewing in European elections (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/12/progress-climate-european-greenlash-populist-right). Climate 'pledges' are now being acted upon and this action has costs. Tocci believes that the growing populist right parties will use the created economic tensions to gain votes. She notes that tensions about environmental policy appears to be growing in many European countries. Dutch farmers complain about mandatory cattle reductions; German citizens worry about costs of replacing gas boilers and Poles want special considerations for their coalmines. The populist right, no longer openly denies that climate change occurs. Instead, they rail against costs to individuals, destruction of livelihoods and 'desecration' of familiar landscapes by wind turbines etc. Tocci worries because there will be 2023 elections in Spain, Slovakia and Poland (as well as, possibly The Netherlands?). She's also concerned about the 2024 elections to the European Parliament. If the right wing populist's anti-environmental action rhetoric is successful, they could then be in pole position to block meaningful action on climate change.

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