Meet the 4 lawmakers vying to lead the Green charge in the EU Parliament
BRUSSELS — The Greens in the European Parliament will on Tuesday pick new leaders, as the group seeks to reverse its waning influence amid Europe’s rightward shift and launch a comeback in the 2029 EU election.
The vote is part of the Parliament’s midterm reshuffle, with a host of top posts up for grabs. The Greens are voting now because Bas Eickhout resigned in May as leader of the group and as an MEP amid revelations of undisclosed relationships with staffers. Eickhout was not only the face of the Greens in the Parliament, but also one of the best-known MEPs in Brussels and in his native Netherlands.
With other group leaders expected to stay in post — or with succession deals already struck — the Green vote is likely to be the reshuffle’s only open leadership race, and as has long been the case, they’ll pick two co-chairs. The candidates are working the phones and going office-to-office to secure the backing of the group’s 53 lawmakers (the Greens are the sixth-largest group in the Parliament).
All four broadly back a shift from pragmatic dealmaking inside the Parliament toward more offensive mobilization, gearing up for a 2029 EU election in which they hope to reverse heavy losses in 2024 , and getting lawmakers out of Parliament and onto the streets.
POLITICO spoke to all the candidates. The vote takes place on Tuesday, with a press conference scheduled for 6.15 p.m. to announce the winners.
Terry Reintke — the continuity candidate
Germany’s Reintke has helped lead the group since 2022 and is widely expected to win one of the two co-chair posts. “I’m quite optimistic, quite confident,” she said in an interview.
Reintke says she believes the Greens can exert influence through pragmatic dealmaking, but also wants to take a more assertive approach.
Terry Reintke takes part in a vote during a plennary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France on May 20, 2026. | Sebastien Bozon/AFP via Getty Images
The group “is really longing to focus more on external communication … to be more outspoken, to be more with the people, to go more outside of the European Parliament, to be more on the ground,” she said, adding that “this is … a sort of politics that I come from, that I was raised with.”
Such a change does not mean removing the Greens from the majority that supports the Commission, Reintke argued. Despite its rightward shift and rollback of green policies, the group can still secure wins by negotiating, she said, citing as an example the EU’s 2040 climate target, which falls short of Green ambitions but remains in place.
“I think this is going to stay,” she said of the pragmatic dealmaking. On some occasions, however, when the group considers it can’t win anything from a deal, “we are ready to also go into oppositional mode.”
That captures the tension shaping the race. Some national delegations within the Greens favor compromise and continued support for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while others want a tougher stance against her executive, which is dominated by the conservative European People’s Party.
Nicolae Ștefănuță — the grassroots newcomer
Ștefănuță joined the Greens in 2023 after defecting from the liberals. He ran as an independent in the 2024 EU election, gathering more than 100,000 signatures urging him to stand and 300,000 votes, according to his pitch for the leadership. He has put that grassroots success at the heart of his bid.
Nicolae Ștefănuță is pictured at an exhibition at the European Parliament, in Strasbourg, on Nov. 25, 2025. | Magali Cohen/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
“I have this special expertise in winning, in doing modern campaigns that we need to do in Europe to fight off the far-right,” he said.
He is also playing the geographic-balance card as the group’s eastern and southern wings seek a more diverse leadership. “I’m from the East and I’ve been … working with everybody, no matter what the region,” he said.
“I have a confidence to really build bridges between all the members of the group and be really a uniter.”
Like Reintke, Ștefănuță says the Greens should strike deals where possible. “I don’t believe in automatic opposition,” he told POLITICO.
He is courting smaller delegations by promising to give them a greater voice and prevent the priorities of larger national groups from dominating.
“I am also running against the idea of maintaining the status quo. We have not always done things right. We should not be complacent,” he wrote in his email pitch to fellow MEPs, in an apparent dig at previous leadership.
“We have not always treated everyone with understanding. The 13 one-person delegations of this group sometimes feel lonely. Instead of asking what they deliver, why don’t we ask what they need? How can we help you?” he wrote.
Isabella Lövin — the former minister
Lövin is selling experience, reliability and a network she says can help shape EU policy.
She served as Sweden’s international development minister, environment minister and deputy prime minister between 2016 and 2021, after a stint as an MEP from 2009 to 2014.
Her goal for the next two-and-a-half years “is to make the Greens as relevant as possible” to fight the far right and put Europe back on “a course” toward sustainability, reduced inequality and less dependence on fossil fuels.
“We should never give up on trying to influence the legislative work,” she said, while also becoming “more vocal on issues which really are understandable to our voters.”
Her experience among EU ministers “could also open a few doors to have us [be] more relevant in discussions,” she said. “I have a very extensive network throughout Europe, all colleagues, both green and not green, to try to kind of … navigate these very, very stormy waters and make us relevant through that.”
Isabella Lövin is selling experience, reliability and a network she says can help shape EU policy. | Martin Bertrand/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
Lövin said her profile complements Reintke’s activist and grassroots links, and she expects Reintke to be reelected. Together, they “can cover many areas and speak to different audiences,” she said.
She acknowledged divisions over how pragmatic versus oppositional the Greens should be, and said the group should allow each delegation to do what’s best in a national context. “My leadership style is always to listen to everyone and try to find a good joint idea about how to go forward,” she said.
“We should focus more on how to communicate and to help smaller delegations to communicate back home.”
Sara Matthieu — the policy hand
Flemish MEP Matthieu casts herself as both a grassroots campaigner and pragmatic dealmaker with extensive policy expertise — pitched somewhere between Ștefănuță and Lövin.
Inside Parliament, Matthieu says the Greens must stand their ground and be “super clear” on issues such as further environmental rollbacks.
“I do think we need to be clearer in some of those battles, where we really have to say, ‘guys, now as a Commission, but also as a Parliament, you are taking it too far. This is really not acceptable anymore.’”
Sara Matthieu participates in a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Sept. 15, 2026. | Philippe Buissin/European Parliament
At the same time, the Greens must keep pressing the Commission for results, she said, citing von der Leyen’s recent heat action plan as a product of the group’s “pressure.”
“It’s not just the battle inside of the Parliament that we need to win, it’s also outside. It’s out on the streets and it’s conquering people’s hearts with the message.”
“For the last two-and-a-half years, we have been the adults in the room, holding the center together while the EPP had no problem relying on far-right majorities to get its way. We did a lot of damage control against this Commission’s reckless deregulation agenda. With me as co-president, we will shift our priorities,” she wrote in her program sent to fellow lawmakers.
Matthieu wants the Greens on the streets, joining citizens’ protests across the EU, but also in dialogue with “innovative business leaders,” workers and trade unions, spreading their message across Europe.
She says her policy expertise and track record set her apart. She helped shape the group’s green industrial strategy and has taken a leading role in the Parliament’s environment committee (she was previously on the employment committee).
Matthieu pointed to “a lot of knowledge on green policies, on climate policies, on protecting people’s health … that is something that sets me apart.”