Europe’s Greens ask Jill Stein to pull out of US election to prevent Trump victory

Green politicians from across Europe on Friday called on U.S. Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein to withdraw from the race for the White House and endorse Democrat Kamala Harris instead.
“We are clear that Kamala Harris is the only candidate who can block Donald Trump and his anti-democratic, authoritarian policies from the White House,” Green parties from countries including Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, Belgium, Spain, Poland and Ukraine said in a statement, which was shared with POLITICO ahead of publication.
Stein is on the ballot in almost every critical U.S. state and polls between 1.1 percent and 1.4 percent, meaning her candidacy could cost Harris critical votes in the tight race for the White House.
“Right now, the race for the White House is too close for comfort,” the statement said. “We call on Jill Stein to withdraw from the race, and endorse Kamala Harris for the presidency of the United States.”
But with the election just days away — voters head to the polls on Nov. 5 — and the relationship between Europe’s Greens and Stein’s party strained, the plea seems unlikely to sway her.
“We are committed to this campaign for the presidency and we would never betray our legion of supporters — and the many supporters who have already cast votes — by abandoning our mission now, regardless of which anti-democratic person or group makes the suggestion,” Stein’s team said in a statement. “Grassroots democracy is a core tenet of the Green movement worldwide, and for one group of Greens to tell another to stop participating in democracy is disappointing and unprincipled.”
Friday’s statement from the European Greens highlighted the “divergent values and policies” of the European and U.S. Greens, noting “there is no link between the two as the US Greens are no longer a member of the global organization of Green parties.”
The statement attributes the “fissure” to the American party’s “relationship with parties with authoritarian leaders, and serious policy differences on key issues including Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine.”
Stein was criticized for attending a 2015 dinner in Moscow sponsored by Russian state television network RT, where she sat at the same table as President Vladimir Putin. In its statement, the Stein team dismissed the criticism as a “smear,” pointing to the Green candidate’s X post on the matter a year ago.
This story was updated with a statement from the Stein campaign.