Europe's Green parties are looking for a new lease of life
Europe's fading Green parties met in Brussels to learn from their electoral setbacks and prepare for a comeback.
Speaking about their future, they said they wanted to focus on a "just transition" that responds to citizens' concerns, and to support a green investment plan at the European level.
"What we definitely need is to give concrete answers to people's everyday concerns about the cost of living," Vula Tsetsi, co-president of the European Green Party, told Euronews.
"We think it is very important not to pit the defence and security budget against the just transition, the cost of living and a more social Europe. But this requires investment and political courage", she added.
Meanwhile, at a time when "simplification" is the watchword of the European Commission, Ciarán Cuffe, co-president of the European Green Party, said he is "concerned" about the future of the Green Pact, the EU's roadmap for achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
He warned against "throwing the baby out with the bathwater".
"If we simplify European legislation, we cannot lose sight of why these laws are there. So, for example, on corporate sustainability due diligence, it's about trying to stop modern sweatshops in Bangladesh and elsewhere," he said.
The Greens have suffered several electoral setbacks over the past year. While they were the fourth largest group in the European Parliament during the previous legislature (2019-2024), they lost 18 seats in June, dropping from 71 to 53 MEPs.
In the German federal elections in February, the Greens led by Robert Habeck obtained 11.61% of the vote, losing 33 seats in the Bundestag.
Meanwhile, the Greens have also seen a decline in Austria. After being part of the country's government with the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), they received 8.24% of the vote in the 2024 parliamentary elections and lost 10 seats in the National Council.
"When you're in government, you have to make compromises. So it's not easy to win over voters," said Tsetsi.
Cuffe blamed the defeats on the party's inability to grasp the issue of defence.
Although Mount Etna's latest eruption — which occurred on 2 June — may be well-documented, online users have been calling into question how real footage of the incident is.
Videos of tourists scurrying down Mount Etna may have gone viral and been spread by mainstream media, but some users have claimed the footage is actually AI-generated.
A number of others have turned to Grok — the X platform's chatbot — to ask whether the footage is authentic.
The footage is in fact authentic, and individuals can be seen scurrying down Mount Etna in a video filmed by the Associated Press.
However, as AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, its ability to produce content that is indistinguishable from real-life images also increases.
This has led to an increasing number of online users becoming suspicious of extraordinary yet authentic footage, due to the high prevalence of AI-generated content online.
In a recent survey conducted by Adobe, nearly three-quarters of respondents said they had questioned the authenticity of photos and videos from reputable news sites due to the sheer amount of misinformation that circulates.
Another widely shared image shows Mount Etna erupting into a white mushroom cloud. A Facebook post of the image, shared by an account called Travel Wonders on 2 June, garnered more than 72,000 likes.
However, by conducting a reverse image search, EuroVerify found that the image matched other photos taken in 2015, just metres away from the same spot.
The original image has also featured in multiple academic reports, which confirms the photo is from 4 December 2015 and therefore has nothing to do with the latest eruption.
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