Does the environmentalists’ electoral fiasco mean that the climate cause is lost? The absence of green in the majorities will be a real test for the future of the fight against global warming.
There is no ecology without ecologists! The slogan of the party which saw its electorate melt away during the June 9 election could be verified. Or not. Over the past fifteen years, the discourse of most parties has evolved on environmental and climate issues. After the banking and economic crisis of 2009, only environmentalists were interested in these questions. “From now on, almost all defend ecology and the environment, notes Jean Faniel, director of Crisp. Even the far-right party Chez Nous, which failed in the elections, devoted one of the six points of its program to it, certainly supporting a local ecology with very Maurasian accents. The only major party that is truly an exception in Belgium is Vlaams Belang, which has a climate-negationist discourse.”
It must be said that the environment remains one of the main concerns of people, as shown by the latest CNCD-Le Vif surveys as well as the major BVA survey which, published at the beginning of last May, revealed that the environment came in third place among Europeans’ concerns, after health and war, and tied with purchasing power. But far ahead of immigration, the populists’ battle horse. Is there therefore a paradox between these opinion studies and last Sunday’s vote who saw the Greens collapse in many EU states?
Not necessarily. Ecology is no longer the prerogative of environmentalists. “This is a very positive element,” judges Nicolas Van Nuffel of the Climate Coalition, which aims to be pluralist. Today, we should no longer debate ambition. There is a sort of unanimity, at least on the French-speaking side. In Flanders, in addition to the blindness of Belang, the N-VA is in a logic of permanent braking.” We saw it during this legislature with the Flemish Minister of the Environment Zuhal Demir who asked Europe to lower the CO reduction objective.2 of Belgium… In Europe too, with a few exceptions, most parties devote a good part of their program to the future of the planet, unlike the United States, for example, where climate skepticism is significant among the Republicans.
Taking the Engagés at their word
“At the population level, however, we note a wide variety of behaviors, shade Jean Faniel. There are those who demonstrate for the climate, no longer take the plane, ride bicycles and those who fly at least twice a year, to go skiing in winter and to a Mediterranean country in summer, and do not want that we touch their thermal car. In political responses, there are therefore also different forms of ecology. This ranges from the radicalism of the PTB, which advocates a major anti-capitalist turn, to more right-wing political projects that some will accuse of green capitalism or greenwashing, including the Ecolos who try to modify the uses of transport or to coordinate initiatives climate transition as Zakia Khattabi did at the federal level. So, even if ecologists remain leading actors for the environment, we can no longer say that we cannot do ecology without them.”
For Nicolas Van Nuffel, now is the time to see whether or not the Greens are essential to the climate cause. “It will obviously be necessary to scrutinize what will be included in the majority agreements and what will be implemented,” he said. Remember that Les Engagés are one of the big winners of the elections. Gold, Maxime Prévot’s party has made the climate one of its main prioritiesand devoted a good part of the electoral campaign to it. He will therefore be expected at the turning point to demonstrate that he can get there without environmentalists.” This could prove to be a very hot discussion point with the MR.
At the European level, where the Greens/ALE groups lost 19 seats out of 72, the stakes are also high.. Do the results of the vote jeopardize the Green Deal so dearly acquired by Ursula Von der Leyen’s EU Commission? The outgoing coalition which set up the Green Deal seems set to play a second season, perhaps even with the help of environmentalists. “It was still Von der Leyen who let go of this issue before the elections, observes the director of Crisp. It was said that it was to appeal to the populist electorate. But, with the rise of the far right, she could argue that we can no longer continue in the same way with the Green Deal.”
“Today, we should no longer debate ambition, there is a sort of unanimity on the issue, at least on the French-speaking side”
Nicolas Van Nuffel (Climate Coalition)
It is true that it is within the social-democratic PPE group, to which Ursula Von der Leyen belongs, that this will play out. To please angry farmers, many of his MPs sabotaged important projects, such as the nature restoration regulation. The decarbonization objectives (-55% by 2030 and -90% by 2040) should nevertheless remain relevant. “There is a lot of excitement within the EPP which is particularly affected by tensions on environmental issues,” analyzes the president of the Climate Coalition. Here too, at home, we will have to follow the attitude of the Committed who are members of the EPP and who supported Von der Leyen during their campaign.”
The real challenge for politicians, on both sides, today is to be able to offer a truthful message to citizens on environmental issues. The controversy surrounding the Good Move plan in Brussels is very revealing in this regard of what we probably no longer need to do. “Everyone clung to their positions dogmatically,” regrets Van Nuffel. However, we should have the courage to say that, for climatic and also health reasons, the number of cars in cities must decrease drastically and, moreover, to recognize that the current plan does not work, especially in neighborhoods where people already feel victims of insufficient public policies. We must be able to discuss it calmly and adapt it.” Good Move is a good example for studying the evolution of political ecology which must undoubtedly extricate itself from an exalted ideology to reflect on our common future.
