Monica Frassoni

Copresidente del Partito verde europeo

Monica Frassoni copresidente del Partito verde europeo

Dear friends,

I stand here today to ask your support and vote for the post of co-spokeperson of the european green party. And I want to start by thanking Ulrike, Katheljine Buitenweg, Philippe and of course my party, ecolo, les verts, die gruenen and the other parties which presented my candidature...

In 2004, I was with a lot of you in the wonderful hall of the auditorium in Rome, celebrating the bet we collectively took to build a common party, after years of difficult discussion and wrangling about whether Europe was to be a chance or a threat for the green world. And today, I know that this bet was right also because, together with the friends and collegues that lived with me the last 20 years of european green history I see a lot of new, bright young women and men ready to show us the future.

The bet was right, because today I see the fantastic results of Europe ecologie, of Die Grunen, of Ecolo and Grun, the evolution of the MiljoPartiet also as my victory and I am sure that you feel the heavy defeats of greens in Italy or in Ireland and Check republic also as your defeat.

Europe and ecology: the way forward is in this two simple words. A way forward that can be very different from what our french friends are following. Over the years, we learned that there is no "one size fits all green model" and we are more ready today than a few years ago to accept and support choices that we would not take in our own political contest. This is also what it means to be a "european family". We know that we win where we are able to be credible and to be heard when talking about Europe as a positive space to do politics and ecology as the key approach for the XXIst century. I could not do this in my country, where the fatal combination between a weak party and a more and more corrupt telecracy wiped us out from the national and the EU parliaments. And our spanish, check, irish, polish friends....were not able to do it either. That is why my main objective as EGP co-spokepeson is to contribute -even with our limited force and mandate- that in most countries and at EU level, we are able to do what I could not in Italy; to convince more and more people that we can bring solutions with a strong democratic Europe and with ecology.

This battle is far from being won, even where we have two digits electoral results. We cannot forget that notwithstanding the fact that we were the winning part of the progressive camp, who governs today are conservative and right wing forces. In Copenhagen there won't be green ministers and negociators. On the contrary, we are already starting to discuss how to manage a disappointing result that a lot of us see as probable at the COP. So we cannot be happy simply to grow in a contest where the power is in the hands of people like Berlusconi, Klaus or Sarkozy, or where even a progressive gvt like the one of Zapatero took as first decision after winning a second mandate that of closing the envir minister.

The results of the Euroelections and the evolution in many countries tell us something else. Greens are strong not only where there are good leaders and organisation. But where the rules of the game are respected, where the media are free and where civil society is able to get organised, where racism and exclusion seem not to be a possible way to get out of the crisis. And this is not the case in some european countries be it within or outside the EU. Entire regions are in the hands of old and new organised crime and organized crime is not very green. Human and civil rights are a part of the green revolution we want to bring about.

So dear friends, in three years time I hope we will be stronger than today, even more fun and more useful, even if EGP is just one drop in the ocean of the actors of the green revolution to be. And many good ideas were presented during these Council. Put in common good practices, organize trainings but also elaborate and push for new ways of communicating, even if you don't have much access to media, you have little money and you seem to be marginal in the European and national debate. I am sure that with Philippe, with the SG and the new brilliant committee you are going to elect, we will be able to achieve this goal.