Attracting A Green Voter: When Do Political Parties Greenwash?

A recent trend for ‘greening’ voters’ demand has not only resulted in the establishment of green parties but also incentivized other parties to apply greenwashing practices, i.e. misleading use of a green image in electoral campaigns. In this paper, I aim to consider factors that may lead to the greenwashing party presence in the European Union states and test their influence on the outcome of interest by implementing Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). In addition, I conducted the case study of the Italian party Lega to exemplify causal conditions, which trigger the party’s greenwashing behavior. The following combination of causal conditions for the greenwashing outcome was discovered: absence of a successful green party in elections, the right-wing populist nature of an observable party in opposition, a mixed electoral system, low GDP and high unemployment rate in the country.