2025 brought mixed fortunes for the European Green Party: record election results in Norway and Portugal, historic membership surges in Germany and the UK, and the election of the first Green mayor in Copenhagen and Riga. However, the loss of governmental power in Germany was a notable setback. Tobias Gerhard Schminke from Europe Elects has the data and details.
Record membership and historic wins mark 2025 national parliament elections
The European Green Party (EGP) serves as the umbrella organisation for environmentalist and progressive parties across Europe. It is legally recognised as a political party at the European level, making it eligible for partial funding from the European Union to promote party democracy at the supranational level.
In 2025, EGP members played a significant role in national parliamentary elections across the continent.
In Germany, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen won 11.6% of the list vote in the national parliament elections on 23 February, marking the EGP member’s second-largest popular vote share historically. However, the result also represented a loss of 3.1 points compared to the last election in 2021. The Infratest dimap exit poll found a drop in youth support, while older voters remained relatively stable. The party moved to opposition after the centrist CDU/CSU–SPD government took office in May, yet membership surged to a record of 170,000.
The Czech member, Strana zelených, had its candidates run informally on the list of the Pirate Party, circumventing the formal electoral threshold. This contested strategy won the former extra-parliamentary party two out of 200 seats in the lower house of the national parliament. The outcome represents the third-best result in the party’s history and demonstrates the continued strategic importance of multiparty electoral alliances for Greens in Central-Eastern Europe.
In the Netherlands, the EGP member, GroenLinks under Jesse Klaver, ran as part of the left-of-centre GL-PvdA alliance. The list won a disappointing 12.8%, after much of the centre-left vote had shifted to the liberal D66 party, which succeeded in taking the first position from the right-wing PVV of Geert Wilders by a few thousand votes. Whether GroenLinks, which is set to be disbanded in 2026 and be merged into a new GL-PvDA party, will be part of a future government for the first time was still unclear when this report was authored.
In Portugal’s snap elections on 18 May, EGP member LIVRE achieved 4.1% (+0.9 vs. 2024) of the vote, representing its best result to date. The CESOP–UCP exit poll suggested that LIVRE performed particularly well among women aged 18-24 years old (12%). Only 1% of men over 65 and only 1% of voters without a high school diploma support LIVRE.
Portuguese EGP associate member Pessoas-Animais-Natureza defended its single seat in the 230-member parliament. The third EGP member in Portugal, Partido Ecologista "Os Verdes”, has been in an alliance with the Communists since it first ran in an election in the 1980s. The partners suffered their worst election result, delivering, as has been the case since 2022, only seats to the Communists.
LIVRE’s success ensured that EGP members won a total of two seats more than in 2024. However, the parliament overall shifted to the right, and all EGP members remained in opposition to the centre-right government of Prime Minister and European Council member Luís Montenegro.
The Norwegian member of the EGP, Miljøpartiet De Grønne, celebrated a new record vote of 4.7% (+0.8). The party in the oil- and gas-rich country gained influence following the election because the government of Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of the centre-left Arbeiderpartiet now directly relies on its support. The Greens won 10% in the Oslo constituency, but only 2% in the rural far-north Finnmark constituency.
The EGP's presence in Eastern Europe and in microstates remains marginal: In Moldova, Partidul Verde Ecologist ran as a minor partner on a shared electoral list, which received only 0.3% of the vote. Albania’s Partia e Gjelbër did not participate in the 11 May national parliament election. Parliamentary elections in Greenland, Guernsey, and Liechtenstein took place without the participation of an EGP member, as no member is registered in these countries.
UK Greens’ historic success outshines by-election results
By-elections occur in countries with constituency-based elections when parliamentary seats or directly elected executives become vacant due to the death or departure of an elected member.
In 2025, the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen saw a national parliament by-election for its upper house seat on 29 June. France saw seven national parliament (lower house) by-elections (Isère's 1st constituency, Hauts-de-Seine's 9th constituency, Jura's 2nd constituency, Saône-et-Loire's 5th constituency, Paris’s 2nd constituency, Voters abroad 5th constituency, Tarn-et-Garonne’s 1st constituency), Hungary saw two (Budapest district 11; Tolna County district 2), and the United Kingdom saw one (Runcorn and Helsby constituency).
EGP members contested only two of these by-elections with their own candidates, while in most other races, they endorsed other left-of-centre candidates: Les Écologistes – Europe Écologie Les Verts won a disappointing 13.8% (−7.6 vs. 2024) in Hauts-de-Seine; the Green Party of England and Wales candidate in Runcorn and Helsby won 7.1 (+0.7 vs. 2024). This moderate success contrasts with the rise of the Green Party of England and Wales in recent polls after the election of Zack Polanski, who has been campaigning on a succinctly left platform. The Europe Elects average suggests that the Greens in Great Britain collectively (including the Scottish Greens, but excluding Northern Ireland) poll at about 15%, a statistical tie for second place with the Conservatives (17%), Labour (18%), and the Liberal Democrats (13%). Subsamples indicate the party leads among Britons under 24, with roughly 40–50% support. As of 23 November 2025, the party counted for the first time 175,000 members, making it the third-largest in the country.
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Presidential elections across Europe without green bids
European Greens have traditionally struggled with presidential elections in Europe due to their majoritarian character, and 2025 was no exception.
Direct presidential elections took place in Romania (4 and 18 May), Poland (18 May and 1 June), and Ireland (24 October). Indirect presidential or head of state elections took place in Greece (between 25 January and 12 February), San Marino (in March and September), the Holy See (7-8 May), and Switzerland (10 December). European Green Party members did not nominate a candidate of their own in any of these elections, but endorsed at least two of the winning candidates – centrist Nicușor Dan (Romania) and left-wing Catherine Connolly (Ireland). The Greens in Belarus could not nominate a candidate for the presidential election on 26 January, because their organisation had previously been forcibly liquidated by the authoritarian regime in the country, with its leader being sent to prison.
The EGP member MOŽEMO fielded a candidate in the first round of the Croatian presidential election (in 2024), who failed to advance to the second round on 12 January 2025.
An indirect head-of-state by-election was held in Switzerland on 12 March, in which no EGP candidate participated; its multi-member system permits by-elections rather than snap elections.
In Switzerland, government members are directly elected at the cantonal level. In Neuchâtel, Green Party member Céline Vara captured a seat from the liberal FDP, giving the left-of-centre parties an overall majority in the executive. In Zug, Green candidate Andreas Lustenberger unsuccessfully challenged a seat held by the centre-right Die Mitte/Le Centre party. In Geneva, Nicolas Walder narrowly retained a seat for the Green Party, previously left vacant by Antonio Hodgers.
Subnational elections: First Green mayors in Copenhagen and Riga
In Northern Europe, Greens recorded gains during local and regional elections. In nationwide regional parliament elections in Finland, EGP member Vihreä liitto received between 2.9% in Central Ostrobothnia and 13.7% in Western Uusimaa, with 18 out of 21 regions seeing a larger green share than in the 2022 election. In Helsinki, the party received 17.9% (–1.9) in the local elections. In Denmark, EGP member Socialistisk Folkeparti (SF) saw significant gains in the nationwide regional elections on 18 November, profiting from the decline of the centre-left Socialdemokratiet. The party won between 8.5% and 11.7% of the vote, gaining between 3.2 and 4.3 points compared to the 2021 result. Local elections held in parallel showed a similar trend, as SF increased its 2021 vote share of 7.6% by 3.5 points. The swing was even more extreme in the capital Copenhagen, where the party jumped from 11.0% (2021) to 17.9%, making it the second-largest force in the city after the left-wing Enhedslisten – De Rød-Grønne (22.1%). Sisse Marie Welling (SF) is set to become Copenhagen’s first official lord-mayor who is not a member of Socialdemokratiet since the office was established in 1938.
In Italy, seven regional elections took place, covering Aosta Valley, Marche, Calabria, Tuscany, Apulia, Campania, and Veneto. As part of the Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra, EV increased its representation from 1 to 2 seats in Aosta Valley and from 0 to 2 seats in Tuscany compared to the previous elections. Tuscany marked the alliance’s strongest regional performance to date, with 7.0% of the vote.
In the City of Zagreb (Croatia), MOŽEMO! successfully defended the mayoralty, with Tomislav Tomašević receiving 47.6% of the vote and 17 out of 47 council seats, remaining the largest single party in the capital’s municipal chamber.
In Central Europe, Greens faced setbacks in regional and local elections. In Austria’s Burgenland, Die Grünen – Die Grüne Alternative won 5.7% (–1.1), continuing a pattern of moderate support since 2000, despite a new membership record of 7,500 nationwide. In Vienna’s regional parliament election, the Greens suffered minor losses, declining from 14.8% to 14.5%. During regional parliament elections in Hamburg, Germany, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen declined by 5.7 points to 18.5%, its second-best result. Switzerland held regional parliament elections across multiple cantons. The GRÜNE/Les VERT-E-S saw a downward trend in Jura and Valais (no regionwide popular vote data available), roughly in line with losses in Neuchâtel (14.6%, –3.6), while remaining stable in Solothurn (10.2%, –0.1).
The Latvian Progresīvie defended its 11 out of 60 seats in the Riga city council, subsequently having their own Viesturs Kleinbergs elected the first EGP-affiliated mayor. The Estonian Greens received a disappointing 0.2% (–0.9) nationwide in the 19 October local elections, losing their only two local seats (in the Antsla parish council). In Tallinn, their vote share fell from 2.2% to 0.5% in the city council election.
Regional election results in South-Western and South-Eastern Europe were less noteworthy. All EGP members in Madeira remained below 2% and won no seats. The North Macedonian EGP member Demokratska Obnova na Makedonija lost its single seat in the Skopje city council. In the Georgian local elections on 5 October, the Green Party received 0.1% of the vote nationwide and no seats. In the Tbilisi mayoral elections, party candidate Giorgi Gachechiladze won 0.8%.
Subnational elections also took place in Azerbaijan and Russia, but these were neither free nor fair. No EGP member is active in Republika Srpska (region of Bosnia and Herzegovina), so no affiliated candidate ran in the 23 November regional presidential election; the same will be true for San Marino’s local elections a month later.
Regional parliament elections in the Spanish region of Extremadura are set to take place on 21 December.
The following members of the Europe Elects network reviewed this article: Antonio Modeo (Italy, Holy See, San Marino), Dylan Simpson (Ireland), Emilia Wanat (Poland), Francesca Giosuè (Italy), Gert Armand Valgerist (Estonia), Imre Telegdi (Hungary), Jan Jakob Langer (Georgia), Joakim Lindboe (Norway), Julien Mathias (Portugal), Linus Folke Jensen (Latvia), Lovro Morovic (Croatia), Matías Pino Cabeza (Spain), Matthias Troude (France), Nasha Gagnebin (Liechtenstein, Switzerland), Paul Wieczorek (Germany), Roman Broszkowski (Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Simone Sessolo (Switzerland), Tristan Emil Lion Balsløw (Denmark), and Julius Lehtinen (Albania, Finland, Greenland).
The views and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union | Global Dialogue.
