Green party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace social democratic economic policies and form coalitions with other left-wing parties.
Green parties exist in nearly 90 countries around the world, many of which are members of Global Greens.
Definitions
There are distinctions between "green" parties and "Green" parties. Any party, faction, or politician may be labeled "green" if it emphasizes environmental causes. In contrast, formally organized Green parties may follow an ideology that includes not only environmentalism, but often also other concerns such as social justice and consensus decision-making. The Global Greens Charter lists six guiding principles which are ecological wisdom, social justice, participatory democracy, nonviolence, sustainability and respect for diversity.History
Political parties campaigning on a predominantly environmental platform arose in the early 1970s in various parts of the world.The world's first political parties to campaign on a predominantly environmental platform were the United Tasmania Group, which contested the April 1972 state election in Tasmania, Australia, and the Values Party of New Zealand, which contested the November 1972 New Zealand general election. Their use of the name 'Green' derived from the 'Green Bans': an Australian movement of building workers who refused to build on sites of cultural and environmental significance.
The first green party in Europe was the Popular Movement for the Environment, founded in 1972 in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. The first national green party in Europe was PEOPLE, founded in Britain in February 1973, which eventually turned into the Ecology Party and then the Green Party. Several other local political groups were founded in the beginning of the 1970s. Fons Sprangers was probably the first Green mayor in the world, elected in 1970 in Meer, and active until 2020 for the Flemish Greens. The first political party to use the name "Green" seems to have been the Lower Saxon "Green List for Environmental Protection", founded on 1 September 1977.
The first Green Party to achieve national prominence was the German Green Party, famous for their opposition to nuclear power, as well as an expression of anti-centralist and pacifist values traditional to greens. They were founded in 1980 and have been in coalition governments at state level for some years. They were in federal government with the Social Democratic Party of Germany in a so-called Red-Green alliance from 1998 to 2005. In 2001, they reached an agreement to end reliance on nuclear power in Germany, and agreed to remain in coalition and support the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the 2001 Afghan War. This put them at odds with many Greens worldwide.
In Finland, in 1995, the Finnish Green Party was the first European Green party to be part of a national Cabinet. Other Green parties that have participated in government at national level include the Groen! and Ecolo in Belgium, The Greens in France and the Green Party in Ireland. In the Netherlands GroenLinks was founded in 1990 from four small left-wing parties and is now a stable faction in the Dutch parliament. The Australian Greens supported a Labor minority government from 2010 to 2013, and have participated in several state governments.
In 2022 Denmark, the Green Party The Alternative has only one Parliament member, having dropped from the previous nine, and five local parliaments members. In 2022 Portugal, the Green Party People-Animals-Nature also has only one Parliament member, having dropped from the previous four, and another in the Madeira Regional Parliament, while its two other Green parties, Partido da Terra and Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes", only have, respectively, two councilpeople and one mayor.
Around the world, individuals have formed many Green parties over the last thirty years. Green parties now exist in most countries with democratic systems, from Canada to Peru, from Norway to South Africa, from Ireland to Mongolia. There is Green representation at national, regional and local levels in many countries around the world.
Most of the Green parties are formed to win elections, and so organize themselves by the presented electoral or political districts. But that does not apply universally: The Green Party of Alaska is organized along bioregional lines to practice bioregional democracy.
Support
Academic research has uncovered striking international consistency in the typical demographic and attitudinal profile of Green party supporters. In particular, Green voters tend to be young, highly educated, disproportionately female, and employed in the social and cultural services, whilst also displaying above-average levels of environmentalism and social liberalism, as well as being left-leaning. Additionally, Green parties also tend to attract greater levels of support in countries defined by high levels of economic development and low levels of unemployment, as well as the presence of tangible environmental disputes and active major party competition on the environmental issue. The former two factors are believed to generate cohorts of voters with enough material security to devote their attention to 'higher' goals such as environmentalism; the latter two help raise the profile of the Green's own policy positions and statements. Their supporters sometimes blame the economical system for the environmental issues neglecting any green free-market liberal capitalist alternatives.Alliances
Depending on local conditions or issues, platforms and alliances may vary. In line with the goal of democracy, neighboring ecoregions may require different policies or protections.Green parties are often formed in a given jurisdiction by a coalition of scientific ecologists, community environmentalists, and local leftist groups or groups concerned with peace or citizens rights.
A Red-Green alliance is an alliance between Green parties and social democratic parties. Such alliances are typically formed for the purpose of elections, or, after elections, for the purpose of forming a government.
Some Greens, such as those in Hawaii, find more effective alliances or indigenous peoples – who seek to prevent disruption of traditional ways of life or to save ecological resources they depend on. Although Greens find much to support in fostering these types of alliances with groups of historically different backgrounds, they also feel strongly about forming diverse communities through encouragement of diversity in social and economic demographics in communities,
Alliances often highlight strategic differences between participating in parties and advancing the values of the Green movement. For example, Greens became allied with centre-right parties to oust the centre-left ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party of Mexico. Ralph Nader, the 2000 presidential nominee of the U.S. Greens, campaigned with ultra-conservative Pat Buchanan on joint issues such as farm policy and bans on corporate funding of election campaigns, although this "alliance" between Nader and Buchanan was very specifically limited to the purpose of showing that there was broad support for certain specific issues, across the political spectrum.
U.S. Greens grew dramatically throughout 2001. However, stable coalitions tend to be formed between elections with left-wing parties on social issues, and 'the grassroots right' on such issues as irresponsible corporate subsidies and public ethics.
On 13 June 2007, the Irish Green Party, represented by six members of parliament or TDs, agreed to go into a coalition government for the first time in their history, with Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats. The Green Party held two Cabinet seats, as well as two junior ministries, until their withdrawal from government in January 2011. They lost all of their six seats in the following month's general election, but won two in the 2016 general election, and twelve seats in the 2020 general election, and entered government again in June 2020.
In the Czech Republic, the Green Party was part of the governing coalition, together with the conservative Civic Democratic Party and the Christian Democrats from January 2007 until the government collapsed in March 2009.
Green parties often have to join coalitions/alliances with other parties within parliament as they rarely get a large share of the vote. Their involvement in coalition governments is important in getting environmental issues on the political agenda, however they are often limited in the amount that they can succeed given they are not the majority within the alliance.
Green parties
Africa
Some national Green parties began forming in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, but they often struggled to gain influence.Wangari Maathai was perhaps the most prominent and successful member of a Green party in Africa: after founding the Green Belt Movement and the Mazingira Green Party of Kenya, she was elected to the Kenyan Parliament in 2002, became an assistant minister for Environmental and Natural Resources, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Other African Green parties that have achieved parliamentary representation include Les Verts Fraternels of Mauritius, and Frank Habineza's Democratic Green Party of Rwanda. In Senegal, Green party leader Haïdar el Ali was appointed Minister for Ecology in 2012.
Asia and Oceania
Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu
Green parties have achieved national or state parliamentary representation in New Zealand, Australia and Vanuatu. In New Zealand the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand currently holds 15 seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives after the 2023 general election. While the Australian Greens hold 10 seats in the Australian Senate and a single seat in the Australian House of Representatives following the 2025 Australian federal election. Since 2004, they have received more votes than any other third party in every federal election. They also have representation in the upper and lower houses of state parliaments of five states and in the unicameral chamber of one territory. Greens also hold representative positions in local government across New Zealand and Australia. The Greens took the seat of Melbourne from the centre-left Australian Labor Party in 2010 with candidate Adam Bandt. This was the first time the Greens have won a Lower House seat at a general election.Proportional representation in the Australian Senate and in New Zealand has strengthened the position of the Australian Greens and the Green Party of New Zealand and enabled them to participate directly in legislatures and policy-making committees. In countries following British-style 'first past the post' electoral rules, Green parties face barriers to gaining federal or provincial/regional/state seats. The Australian Labor Party's practice of allocating a portion of ALP ticket votes to Australian Greens has helped bring AG candidates into parliament. During the 2025 election, How-to-vote cards from Labor tended to prefer the Greens over the centre-right Liberal-National Coalition during the 2025 election in the House of Representatives in 116 out of 150 seats.
In the 2008 ACT election in Australia, the Greens won 15.6% of the vote, winning 4 out of 17 seats. Shane Rattenbury was elected the speaker of the assembly, the first time a Green party member had held such a position in any parliament or assembly in Australia. However, they retained only one seat at the 2012 election in the same territory.
The Green Confederation in Vanuatu won 3 out of 52 seats in the 2012 Vanuatuan general election in October 2012. Its most prominent member is Moana Carcasses Kalosil, who became prime minister in March 2013. Carcasses, a Green liberal, does not lead a Green government, but a broad coalition government in which he is the only Green minister.
There is a Papua New Guinea Greens Party, but it does not have any members in Parliament. There was briefly a Green Party in Fiji from 2008 to 2013; as Parliament was suspended by the military regime during this time, the party was not able to take part in any election before all parties were deregistered in 2013.