European Greens Enjoy "Great Result" in European Parliament Elections

The United Green Parties of Europe hailed their success this morning as the results of the 2009 European Parliament elections -- held from June 4-7 -- were tallied.

Initial results indicate that the European Green Party will control 46 seats in the next European Parliament, which will run from July through June 2014.  This number compares with the 35 seats that the Greens controlled during the previous European Parliament. 

Spokesperson Philippe Lamberts, who was elected a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Belgium, said:

"To have increased the number of Green MEPs from 35 to 46 is a great success.  Our showing is even more remarkable when you consider that we have 11 more seats than before in a European Parliament with 49 fewer MEPs."

The Greens ran particularly well in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, and Sweden.

Quintin Peel, chief European political columnist for the Financial Times, said that the Greens were one of the "winners" in the poll results.

Despite controlling only about seven percent of the total number of seats in the European Parliament, the Greens have historically had considerably more influence than their numbers suggest.  In fact, looked at as a whole, the European Parliament is probably the "greenest" major governmental institution in the world. 

Americans may find this hard to believe, but the U.S. Congress comes in a very poor second -- particularly in the last decade --- when compared head-on-head with the European Parliament.  No Green Party representative has ever been elected to Congress, and the so-called "unofficial" green party of America -- the Democrats -- has no small number of fossil fuel apologists.