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Global Green Party History Chronology - 2004Table of Contents February 20-22: European Green Party Founded in Rome
The European Green Party was founded on 21 February in Rome – the first European wide political party. The founding document was signed in the same room as the Treaty of Rome in 1957, that established the European Economic Community (EEC). This time, 32 Green Parties come together from across the continent, becoming the first pan-European political party organization, amidst the Renaissance splendour of the Campidoglio, the city hall inspired by Michelangelo in the center of the capital's historic district.
Said Italian Green Leader Grazia Francescato, "You can't imagine how difficult it was, but also challenging and stimulating, to put together 32 parties because of course the concept of environment but democracy also, it's different in Georgia let's say or Finland. So what we achieve, it's unity and diversity - that's what makes us proud because we have tolerant to each other, we've been trying hard to accept each other's diversity and not impose one pan-European idea on everyone."
Until February 21, 2004, only federations of party organizations existed, such as the European Federation of Green Parties and similar federations of conservative, social-democratic or liberal parties. Close to 1,300 participants, including 221 delegates and 200 members of the media watched this historic event. The signing followed the two day, Fourth Congress of the European Federation of Green Parties.
The first goal of the newly founded European Green Party was a common election campaign for the European Parliament in June, 2004, which would be the first in Europe that featured common graphics, posters and slogans in all EU countries, as well as a shared campaign website.
June 10, 12, 14: Greens Win 34 Seats in European Parliament Elections In the first European Parliament elections after the expansion of the European Union to include ten countries in Eastern Europe, Greens won 6.6% and 34 seats in European Parliament elections.. However, despite a first-ever common, pan-European campaign, Greens failed to win any seats in the 10 new member states.
After the election, the Greens renewed their alliance with EFA (European Free Alliance) and together with some independent MEPs, remained the fourth largest group in the 732-seat European Parliament with 42 MEPs.
June 26th: U.S. Greens nominate David Cobb and Pat LaMarche for President/Vice-President
In 2004, the Presidential Nominating Convention of the Green Party of United States took two rounds to choose a presidential and vice- presidential nominees. On round two, votes from the delegation of David Cobb's native state Texas delegation, gave him a total of 408, topping the 385 necessary to win the party's nomination The convention, entitled FORWARD 2004!, was held June 23rd-28th, at the Hyatt Regency and the Midwest Center. 769 delegates from 47 states participated in the vote. The contest that emerged in the final months of the campaign pitted a likely nomination for Cobb against endorsement of independent candidate Ralph Nader and his running mate, former California Green gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo .
In his acceptance speech, Cobb reminded that “the Democratic Party’s presidential primary process is where genuine progressive politics goes to die.” Videos of convention speakers and links to convention documents are
June 28: Canadian Greens Stand in all 308 Federal Ridings for First Time
October 9: Australian Greens Contest Federal Elections
In 2004, the Australian Greens fielded candidates in every House of Representatives seat in Australia, and for all State and Territory Senate positions In the Senate, their primary vote rose by 2.73% to 7.67%, enabling them within the Single Transferable Voting (STV) System in use there, to double their number of Senators to four with the election of Christine Milne and re-election of Bob Brown. In the House of Representatives, where the electoral system is first-past-the post (winner-take-all), the Greens share rose by 2.23% to 7.19%. However, the Greens only House member, Michael Organ who was elected in an October 2002 byelection , was defeated by Labor in Cunningham, New South Wales. The 2004 election war marked by an intense media campaign from the socially conservative Family First Party, including a television advertising campaign labelling the Greens the "Extreme Greens". Competitive preferencing strategies prompted by the nature of Senate STV balloting saw the Australian Labor Party and the Democrats rank Family First higher than the Greens on their Senate tickets, resulting in the Greens losing preferences they would normally have received from the two parties. This practice may have cost the Greens a Senate seat. Although outpolling Family First candidate Steve Fielding by a ratio of more than four to one first-preference votes, Green David Risstrom did not win a seat. Risstrom, who had left the Melbourne City Council to run for the Senate, received 8.80% of the primary vote, but was unable to make the quota of 14.3%. Witha high preference from the Australian Labor Party, he would have, but they instead directed preferences to Fileding, who was elected with only 1.76% of the primary vote. In Tasmania, Milne only narrowly gained her Senate seat against a Family First candidate, despite nearly obtaining the full required quota of primary votes. October 12-15: Federación de Partidos Verdes de las Americas meets in Iquitos, Perú Federación de Partidos Verdes de las Americas (FPVA) came to Iquitos, Peru, located in the Amazon region and accessible only by plane or boat, making it perhaps the most isolated large city in the world. Alex Gonzales, president, Alternativa Verde de Peru, and Flor de Maria Hurtado, international secretary, organized the meeting with assistance from many young Greens from Iquitos and nearby Amazonian villages.
FPVA member parties in attendance were the Partido Verde do Brasil, Partido Ecologísta de Chile, Partido Verde Ecologîsta de México, Movimiento Verde Ecologísta, Partido Alternativa Verde de Perú, and the Green Party of the United States. The European Green Party and the newly formed Partido Verde de Venezuela, sent observers. On October 12, prior to the FPVA business meeting, member and observer parties were invited to present their Green visions at a public forum attended by 200 people. City officials and a broad array of NGO representatives, including even the Chamber of Commerce, were present. Among FPVA decisions taken were to issue a call to the U.N. to establish a protocol to stop the destruction of the world's rainforests and create a Kyoto-like protocol to sustain the Amazon rainforest; and a call for a delegation of elected Greens to meet in the Amazon with the objective of publicizing the extreme consequences of global warming and the contribution to the warming of the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest. Delegates also voted to grant FPVA observer status to the Partido Verde de Venezuela and the newly merged Partido Verde de la Unidad Democratica in the Dominican Republic, which merged previous FPVA member party the Partido Verde Dominicana with the Partido de la Unidad Democratica (UD) and the PVD provided documents relative to a merger. November 2: U.S. Greens achieve record number of officeholders after November General Elections After the closeness (and controversy) of the 2000 presidential election and the Greens' role in it, 2004 presented the most difficult organizing climate yet for the Green Party in the United States. But despite this challenge, Greens by the end of 2004 had garnered record numbers of elected officials and registered party members across the United States. Seventy Greens won their races in 2004, including 12 city council seats and 19 victories overall in California, leading to a record 225 Greens holding elected office across the United States, including 68 in California, where Greens have the majority on city councils in Arcata and Sebastopol. California Green co-founder Ross Mirkarimi was also elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, assuming the seat of retiring Green Matt Gonzalez. In Maine, State Representative John Eder became the first Green holding state legislative office to be re-elected, holding on to his seat in Portland against heavy Democratic opposition. Six Greens were elected in Washington, D.C. and five were elected in Oregon. In mostly rural San Miguel County in southwestern Colorado, County Commissioner Art Goodtimes was elected for a third time; while in Mississippi, John Lee became the first Green elected there after winning a seat on the Lee County Board of Elections. Twenty-one percent of all Green candidates and 26 percent of all winning Green candidates were women -- including 50 percent in California. The second-youngest Green to win in the nation, Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, 24 (Humboldt, Ca., water district), was also a woman, followed by two more -- 26-year-old Harmony Groves (Arcata, Ca., city council) and 27-year-old Holly Madrigal (Willits, Ca., city council). In the absence of significant Democratic Party opposition to the invasion of Iraq, Greens also helped provide electoral expression for the peace movement. Dozens of Green anti-war congressional and state legislative candidates ran in 2004. The states that ran record numbers of candidates - California, D.C., Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington - were in every region of the nation, demonstrating the breadth of Green growth. And despite the aggressive efforts of the presidential campaigns of Dean, Kerry and Kucinich to reregister Greens as Democrats to vote in the Democratic Party's presidential primaries, Green registration grew by 10 percent in 2004, to an all-time high of 313,186 in 22 states. (This omits Greens in states where the Green Party has not yet achieved ballot status and/or in states that don't permit party registration.)
November 26-28: European Green Party Meets in Dublin The First Council Meeting of the European Green Party was hosted by the Irish Greens and held at the Gresham Hotel in the heart of Dublin City Centre, bringing delegates together from across Europe and observers from Europe and beyond. With a series of national referendums on the draft European Constitution scheduled across Europe in 2005, debate in Dublin centered on whether to adopt a common European Green position regarding the Constitution. Not only were there differing positions among delegates on whether or not to support the Constitution, but there was also the issue of whether there should be a European Green position, or whether it should be left up to the national parties, because the vote would take place upon a nation-by-nation level. As a result of this debate, delegates voted to schedule a special vote in February on the question. Delegates also passed a series of resolutions on other topics and issues.
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