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FORMER MEP FOR THE Green Party, Ciarán Cuffe, was elected as one of the two chairs of the European Green Party over the weekend.
Cuffe was an MEP for the party from 2019 to 2024. In June, he and party colleague Grace O’Sullivan lost their seats in a highly competitive European election.
It was the beginning of a bad bout of election outings for the Greens – they underperformed in the simultaneous local elections, and in the recent general election, were decimated as a parliamentary party.
Speaking to The Journal just prior to his election as co-chair of the European Green Party (EGP), Cuffe said that he had enjoyed being involved in legislation and policy making at a European level.
“I would like to continue with it for the time being,” he said.
Cuffe and Vula Tsetsi, the former secretary general of the Green/EFA political grouping in the European Parliament, were elected at the party’s congress in Dublin.
A statement said the two received “near unanimous support from Green parties across Europe, who supported their vision to take on the extreme right, and to bolster a green and just transition that benefits everyone”.
The duo succeed Mélanie Vogel and Thomas Waitz, who led the EGP through the recent European election campaign.
Speaking after his election, Cuffe said: “We have seen extraordinary progress of green legislation over the last decade, and we want to maintain that momentum in these challenging times.
“We can see the renewable energy revolution spreading across Europe. We want to ensure that green measures continue to deliver benefits for ordinary working people: lower bills, decent housing, and quality jobs.”
He added that war in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as widespread disinformation, has lead to “dark times for democracy”.
“The European Greens will continue to shine a light in the darkness, and champion transparency, inclusion, and human rights for all.”
Nationally, Cuffe says that he believes that more work needs to be done to continue the green imperative. The Green Party went from 12 TDs to just one, leader Roderic O’Gorman, in a nail-biting count at the beginning of this month.
“It is important for the green imperative to continue. It was good to see some parties continue it but Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil seemed to be dropping them as the left for the door,” he told The Journal, adding, for example, that the parties made more references to road expansions in election manifestos rather than having a greater focus on public transport.
“We could’ve used our elbows a bit more,” he said. Cuffe added that he believed the party may have “pigeon holed” themselves while in government and could’ve “claimed ownership” more often on issues such as the cost of living, housing and security – which he says are major topics that are impacting the lives of people in Europe at the minute.
He said that he wants to be a voice for smaller parties, like the Green Party, in Europe – though noted that, unlike in 2011, the Irish entity’s membership is still strong.
Speaking to media on Friday, leader Roderic O’Gorman made similar remarks, claiming that the party may have needed sharper messaging to get across the fact that their policies, such as childcare and retrofitting measures, were core to their political beliefs.
He added that there could’ve been a greater emphasis on the point that the climate measures, which were introduced while the party was in government, will now be in place “forever”.
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You’d like to say ..”mmm, X is the best of a bad bunch”…..but looking at this list it’s just a ‘bad bunch’ full stop. Anyone but Pretti Patel though
Not as bad as Vance who “did not have sexual relations with that sofa”!!!! #MadamPresident2024
Their most “centrist” candidate wants to leave the Convention on Human Rights!!! Says it all really, these Radical Right have a disdain for human rights and people have abandoned them in their droves. Labour will be in power for decades.
@9QRixo8H: Had a chuckle when I read that. The most pro-Israeli of a pro-Israeli gang is also their most ‘centrist candidate’.
@9QRixo8H: Indeed. I see that British people still don’t understand that their own politicians signed the Lisbon Treaty only on condition that they could add their own amendment. That UK amendment opted Britain out of the International charter of human rights. They’ve left it to their rulers for way too long and that’s an example of how their rulers got away with dismissing the principles of human rights. I don’t think enough people saw that at the time – tabloids assured them all that their politicians knew exactly what they were doing. Unfortunately, this was true. And British people were deported out of the blue because of that disregard.
Some day they’ve got to do better by their voters.
Would like to see British Patel as leader as she would accelerate the demise of what’s left of the despicable Tory party.
@James Leahy: True James……guess you’d have to counter -balance that with her utter disdain & contempt for Ireland/ anything Irish
@Buster Lawless: was she the one who said we should starve the Irish at one stage.No concept of history and not much between the ears either.
@James Leahy: Don’t overestimate the British voter. The Tories will be back in power soon enough. It’s quite the conservative country.
They deserve all the disarray they can muster up and more,pity auld thatcher isn’t around to see it.
Thoughts with those and their loved ones in Southport. The headline below needs changing. To ‘kill’ means to make someone or something die. ‘Murder’ refers to the crime of deliberately causing someone’s death.
A Dribble of Deplorables
We think our shower are bad!!!
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