The Green Party is celebrating what it calls “spectacular” results across Europe, including the UK where it has seen its number of MEPs in England alone double, rising from three to seven.
The first Brussels Green Party representatives were elected in the Eastern, North West, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber regions.
Greens seats were retained in London, the South East and the South West, where Scott Cato was re-elected.
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The party finished fourth in the total vote in the UK, above the Conservative Party, the first time the Greens have beaten the Tories in a national election.
On Friday, Scott Cato told this website she was “thrilled” to have been re-elected to Parliament with a greatly increased vote share.
“I’m particularly pleased that we topped the poll in Bristol with 35 percent of the vote. It’s clear that Greens are now the strongest party in many European cities and amongst the young.”
“The result is also a clear condemnation of the failure of Labour on Brexit and the increasing frustration with the two-party system when both of those parties are letting people down so badly.”
“It’s exciting to be going back to a much stronger group of Green MEPs. This means we can take powerful and urgent action on climate change that will make a major global impact. We will prioritise taxing CO2 emissions and controlling aviation.”
“The result is also a clear condemnation of the failure of Labour on Brexit and the increasing frustration with the two-party system when both of those parties are letting people down so badly” Molly Scott-Cato MEP
She added, “I’ll also be active on farming policy, working together with farmers to ensure that we move forward with a farming system that revitalises our countryside while ensuring that we use land to capture carbon and produce high-quality, safe food in a way that allows wildlife to flourish.”
Speculation is rife about the new alliances that are likely to be formed in the next Parliament. The Greens/EFA will have 69 seats in the Parliament, a gain of 17 seats compared with the last Parliament.
The group is now the fourth largest in Parliament although it is not yet know if will join forces with any other groups to form a “pro-EU” coalition.
Scott Cato said, “I’m not too keen on speculating as it might undermine our negotiating position. I think it’s fine to say that we need a strong pro-European majority, but the Greens will only do that if the right-wing parties abandon their traditional defence of industry and hostility to urgent action on climate.”
The usual horsetrading over the distribution of the EU’s top jobs has also started, including the next President of the European Commission.
There is a growing support for EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager who, if appointed, would become the first ever female Commission President.
On this, Scott Cato said, “I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a big fan of Vestager who could come through as a compromise candidate. It would be symbolically good to have a woman at this time.”
Further comment on the Greens’ success in the polls came from Sian Berry, co-leader of the Green Party in the UK, who said the results also provided “clear evidence” of “strong support for the UK remaining in the European Union.”
Berry said the results in the UK, which also saw a huge surge in support for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, reflect a public desire for tackling the “causes of Brexit and the massive damage done to so many communities by austerity, tax-dodging and diminution of workers’ rights.”
Elsewhere, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, has suggested that Hungarian ruling party Fidesz would not join the European Alliance of Peoples and Nations, a new Eurosceptic group in the European Parliament established by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.
Gulyas said, “We respect the Italian Deputy Prime Minister and the Italian Government and the result, which made the Northern League Italy’s strongest party after the European Parliament election,” adding, “Nonetheless, I see not much chance for cooperation on a party level or in a joint parliamentary group.”
Fidesz is currently a member of the centre-right European People’s Party but has recently been suspended.
Meanwhile, Salvini says that Italy will not be holding early elections.