Address to the Milöpartiet de Gröna (Swedish Greens) on the occasion of their bi-annual congress in Västerås, 18 October 2025
Good afternoon, and greetings from the European Green Party.
Let me thank and congratulate Amanda Lind and Daniel Helldén on their great work and re-elections as party co-spokespersons. So good also to ‘get the band back together’ and meet with my former MEP colleagues Alice Bah Kuhnke, Pär Holmgren’, and Jacob Dalunde, as well as Isabelle Lövin, the ‘new kid on the block’.
I am here as co-chair of the European Greens. We bring together national parties that share the same Green values, and who are active across the entire European continent - both within the European Union and beyond. We are striving for a Green transformation of Europe and its economy that will bring about a progressive and sustainable future for all its citizens.
In recent years I worked with my Swedish colleagues in the European Parliament to deliver the European Green Deal, a series of laws and regulations that aimed to reduce the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by 55% between 1990 and 2030. We are well on our way to achieving that, but the 2020s must continue to be the decade of implementation and action. In that period both Conservatives and Progressives worked together on climate action and a just transition. We now need at least a 90% reduction target for 2040.
From Conservatives to Progressives we worked together. We joined forces with governments, trade unions and civil society to make change happen. However, times have changed: Collaboration between conservative forces (EPP) and far-right (ECR, Patriots) is now common and we need to fight to avoid it being accepted!
The political forces in the European Parliament and in the Council (with Member States) are now in a completely different dynamic. We have been able to position ourselves in 2025 as the force fighting the rising authoritarianism of the far-right forces. Successful examples include: the Budapest & Pécs Pride events (where the Swedish party was also present), our strong commitment against the repression against students in Serbia, and also the on-going repression of democratic forces in Georgia & Turkey
Looking ahead, the big issues of our time: climate, poverty, safety, global health and security cannot be solved by the nation state alone. They demand cooperation across borders. That is what we are proud of as Europeans, that is what we are proud of as Greens. We will work with you, we will stand with you, we are proud of what you have achieved, and will achieve. It must be remembered that we are the only political force that is coherent internationally when it comes to our position on the war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza. We will always be the force that defends international rule of law. We thank Miljöpartiet de gröna for all your contributions to our internal political discussions and for standing together with us on this.
This is a time for the Progressive forces to combine forces and fight together for the values we believe in. The Nordic countries have shown over the past year that, in those difficult times, the Green movement can be a political force that wins, and that brings hope to our citizens. Green and red parties did particularly well in the Nordic countries in the European elections last year. I want to explicitly mention the breakthrough results in Norway, the strong support for the Greens in Denmark and the possibility of a Green mayor for Copenhagen this autumn (!) but also the positive dynamics that you are bringing ahead of the Swedish elections next year. There seems to be a momentum for progressive politics, and we need to capitalize on it! Hope comes from the North, we are looking to the Northern Lights to illuminate our pathway forward. More than ever, the Nordic countries can and must show the way for Europe.
I want to finish by mentioning the upcoming European Green Party (EGP) Lisbon Congress on 5-7 December where I hope to see many of you again.
