Greens take step into unknown with election of Zack Polanski as leader

Zack Polanski won the Green Party leadership on a media-savvy, eco-populist platform promising faster electoral growth. His campaign criticised slow progress and warned of being outpaced by larger rivals like Reform. Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns embodied the party's gradualist wing as two of its four MPs, advocating steady expansion. The contest exposed divisions between established figures and enthusiastic new members, producing strained relations and accusations of a hostile takeover. Some senior Greens praised renewed energy and membership influx. Polanski must balance an attention-grabbing public role with maintaining trust among MPs and sceptical party members.

OK, now they've got your attention. In electing Zack Polanski, a media-friendly former actor with an eye-catching vision for a mass movement of eco-populism, the Greens have taken a step into the unknown. And the first task for Polanski is to bring the party with him. Green leadership contests are generally quite polite. This time it has been different, in part due to the personalities but mainly because of the very different visions on offer.

The vanquished duo of Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns represented the nearest thing the Greens have to an establishment two of the party's four MPs, beneficiaries of a patient and gradual electoral push, promising more of the same. While Polanski is hardly an outsider, having been deputy leader since 2022, his critique was pointed: progress was happening too slowly and the Greens risked being left behind, not least by a Reform party already much bigger in membership and poll numbers.

Some other senior Greens bristled at Polanki's surprise leadership bid, first announced in a Guardian interview, with one terming it a hostile takeover. But others praised his energy and an apparent influx of enthused new members. While the role of Green leader in England and Wales has very limited power the party didn't even have one before 2008 they are a figurehead and a media focus, a role that the fluent Polanski aims to use to the full.

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