Future of Europe: Green Deal in the balance as political pushback sweeps bloc

“The poll projections for MEP seats after the upcoming European elections are that those parties to the right of the European People Party (EPP), who are generally climate sceptic, will gain a number of seats,” said Luigi Scazzieri, senior research fellow at the Centre For European Reform think-tank.

“There is also the far left, and while they aren’t sceptical of the aim of climate action, they can be sceptical of the methods to reach those goals because they think it impacts too much on ordinary citizens et cetera,” he added.

The political reality of these developments as European elections approach is that the whole debate on climate and environment is souring, and more centrist parties are responding by hardening their positions on climate action.

“The effect all of this is to push the parties of the centre to also take these issues more into account. That is what we saw earlier this year with the Nature Restoration Law and the EPP’s rejection of that. And it’s not only the EPP, but even a third of Renew MEPs, a more liberal party, have voted against recent Green Deal legislation,” he said.

Of course, not all farmers are against the measures outlined in the Green Deal or in domestic climate action measures across members states.

Scazzieri though highlighted how farmers, as a grassroots political force not necessarily associated with any one party, were having a significant influence on this anti-green narrative too.