Greenlash

As EU countries such as Spain, Slovakia and Poland prepare for elections later this year, and with European parliament elections in 2024, there is a real risk that rightwing, populist parties will latch on to the “greenlash” and surge back in the polls.

Unlike in many countries in Europe, where motorists, farmers and rightwing groups have been driving anti-climate action, the UK has long enjoyed a comfortable political consensus on the subject. But conditions for a greenlash are assembling.

Spain knows it has a problem. In a time of right-wing opposition to Europe’s environment-protecting Green Deal regulations — “greenlash,” it has been called — the progressive government of Spain has embraced an ecological transition.