Since the 1980s, the lack of confidence in established political parties
among European citizens has attracted the attention of scholars, journalists
and politicians. Voter turnout has declined and the support for small parties
has increased. Green parties have been electorally successful in several
European countries. Consequently they have challenged the established
political parties programmatically as well as strategically. The Greens had a
pronounced impact on the structure of party competition since the 1980s.
Depending on the extent to which a political system is open or closed, these
parties have been to a large degree responsible for the electoral volatility
within several European nations.
The main interest of this article is to identify and classify the electoral
strength of Green parties in European party systems over the past 20 years
and find explanations for their electoral success