Greens open to negotiations with Plaid Cymru, leader says
The leader of the Welsh Greens has said his party is open to negotiations with Plaid Cymru.
Speaking at the Green Party Senedd manifesto launch on Tuesday, Anthony Slaughter said collaboration is “in the DNA” of his party.
Labour has led Wales for more than two decades but, if opinion polling is to be believed, Reform and Plaid Cymru are vying to become the biggest parties after the vote on May 7.
Launching the Green campaign last week, leader Zack Polanski said he believed his party, which currently has no members of the Senedd (MSs), could be “kingmakers” in Wales.
On Tuesday, Welsh leader Mr Slaughter said: “The crises that we’ve outlined and that we tackle in this manifesto are so urgent, we would work with likeminded people where there is common ground to tackle these issues.
“If Reform UK are the largest party in the Senedd, God forbid, I don’t think I need to say it again and again, we would not work with Reform in any shape or form, we would not work with the Welsh Conservatives in any shape or form.
“But if it comes to pass that Plaid Cymru are the largest party, we are open to talking, negotiating.
“Any Green support for a future Welsh government isn’t unconditional, it isn’t just, ‘you’re not Reform, you’ve kept Reform out’.
“There would be key Green objectives that would have to be delivered.”
The Wales Green Party manifesto pledges a scrapping of council tax, to be replaced with a land value tax, a freeze on rents and free bus travel for under-22s.
On Tuesday, Mr Slaughter said he expects his party to have significant influence over the next Welsh government.
The latest YouGov poll published by ITV Cymru Wales forecasts Plaid Cymru to be the biggest party in the Welsh Parliament, with the Greens, who have never won a seat at Cardiff Bay, on course to elect 10 MSs.
Mr Slaughter said: “If the current polling is supposed to be believed, we are on track to have significant influence, in some shape or form, over the next Welsh government.
“This is a historic election for Wales, things are going to change, we are going to deliver that hope that we’ve promised.”
Both Plaid Cymru and the Wales Green Party are in favour of Welsh independence.
However, Mr Slaughter previously said the Greens will not be “pushing a pro-independence agenda” in this election.
A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: “The people of Wales will decide the election, and it is not for anyone else to second guess that outcome.
“After 27 years of Labour First Ministers, it’s clear this election offers Wales a historic opportunity for change. But that change is yet to be decided – with poll after poll showing two very different futures: Reform’s division versus Plaid Cymru’s hope.
“Plaid Cymru is the only party that can stop Reform in their tracks, becoming the largest party in the Senedd to deliver on our credible plans for government: from strengthening the economy and supporting Welsh-owned businesses, tackling Labour’s NHS waiting list crisis, and giving children the best start in life.”
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Cannot see why Plaid Cymru, if and when elected as the largest party in the Senedd, would be motivated to phone the Green Party HQ in London to make any governance arrangements. If you want a Plaid Cymru government then vote Plaid Cymru, not some proxy.
Please don’t Rhun. Huge vote loser. They are extremists and, as their party conference recently demonstrated, utterly mad. You will scare people into abstaining completely.
I’d be happier if this was only a last resort, but as there are currently many in Cymru who wish to attack Cymru and it’s people by supporting reform, desperate times call for desperate measures.
If Reform get in, our language, way of life and everything we have left after being pillaged by the empire will be gone.
This isn’t just politics now, this is protecting whats left of Cymru.
Can they be called what they are? “The Green Party of England and Wales”
The new system means that some cooperation with another party will be necessary for Plaid. However, anything is better than another spell of Labour who have failed badly and the Trump supporting Reform party would be an unmitigated disaster. Just look at the hell that Trump has unleashed on the world with petrol price increases, etc.
Whatever happens Plaid has to run Wales for the whole of Wales, not just the people that want indy. I hope they do this well.
I have mixed feelings about this. They have some great local leaders and genuinely good people – including Rhun, and they will do their best for all of our communities – no question in my mind.
But if you’ve followed local politics in north wales – Gwynedd and Ynys mon, you’ll realise some there are some really insular, selfish individuals and some bad eggs. Some of them might even get elected due to the new electoral format…
Tricky. I want to see what they have but the same money pot remains with the same population and realityy I think will not be kind. But at the mo I am indy curious and can lend them my vote if it keeps reform out. Don’t go OTT is all I would say.
English pot planting loony Farage of the extreme left.
The Vegetables Party leader made money by promising women he’d make their boobs bigger by hypnosis, to even believe this would require use of the illegal illicit drugs they want to legalise.