Left for dead on the political battlefield only a few years ago, Green parties from Ireland to Germany made surprising gains in last week’s elections across the European Union. The environment-focused parties in some countries more than doubled their voter support from recent national elections and emerged as the fourth-largest bloc in the European Parliament.

“Voters are very clearly asking for change,” said Bas Eickhout, leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, where the Green caucus grew from 50 in 2014 to at least 69 members. The Greens’ rise in part fills a void left by the implosion of the parliament’s center-left group, which won only 146 seats last week, compared with 191 five years ago…

“There will be a push for more environmental policies in Europe,” said Camino Mortera-Martinez, a senior research fellow at the Center for European Reform, a think tank. “Coordination with the U.S. will depend on who is president and on how strongly candidates in the election will push for a Green New Deal.”