alternatehistory.com

It seems like we occasionally hear stories about Green parties growing in stature, younger voters being more pro-environment and more likely to prioritize it as top issue, and yet I can't think of any examples of a Green party leading the government (though it seems like it's now at least possible in Iceland, where the Left-Green Movement finished second in the election over the weekend). Are there plausible scenarios where the Green party in other countries could have become the primary voice of the center-left and in position to lead a government by now?

Aside from Iceland and the Netherlands, the one I can think of off the top of my head is if the 2005-09 German Grand Coalition had ended up governing as a more uncompromisingly center-right administration with the SPD being dragged into supporting almost all of the CDU/CSU's traditional agenda, while the Greens successfully dissociate themselves from the more unpalatable aspects of the Schroder government's record. This doesn't enable them to win in 2009, but maybe they gobble up a considerable portion of the former SPD vote as well as some of Die Linke's constituency, finishing with 20-25% of the vote, becoming the main opposition party outside the subsequent CDU/CSU-FDP coalition and being seen as the primary alternative to Merkel in the 2013 and/or 2017 elections. But maybe similar scenarios are possible in other countries whose politics I just don't know very well?

(Of course, I suppose the more unpleasant possibility is that, just as austerity fueled the rise of parties like SYRIZA, Podemos, Five Star Movement, and Sinn Fein, the Greens might see their support rise as the effects of climate change become more severe and pervasive.)
Top