Green leader says top priority is Senedd elections

Zack Polanski said he hopes to have at least two Green party members in the Senedd next year.

The new Green party leader says his number one priority is making sure they get a seat in the Senedd at the 2026 elections.

Zack Polanski attended an action day for the Caerdydd Penarth constituency where they announced their second ranked candidate, Tessa Marshall, and went out leafleting.

He said their aim was to get both Anthony Slaughter and Tessa Marshall elected for the constituency after their recent council by-election win in Grangetown, Cardiff.

Mr Polanski won their leadership election for the party in Wales and England by a landslide of 20,411 votes to 3,705 on 2 September.

Speaking at the meetup, Mr Polanski said that Wales "isn't being given the attention it deserves" politically.

"Far too often Wales politicians are more concerned about protecting their national or bi-national party rather than actually doing what is the right thing for Wales," he added.

While Mr Polanski did not agree with Reform policies, he said the Greens should not write their voters off.

"People who might be thinking about voting for Reform, or people who are looking at that and saying, 'I'm so sick of the Labour Party and the Conservatives, I would never vote for them again', are the exact people we need to care about," he added.

"They're the people we need to reach out to, because actually they are the people who are suffering most from decades of austerity, both under the Conservative government and now the Labour government too."

Anthony Slaughter spoke at the event ahead of the 2026 election

He told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement that he has a "genuine love" for Anthony Slaughter and that he expects him to be elected for Caerdydd Penarth in May.

"Anthony Slaughter is a popular man... not only was he literally a rock star and a drummer but actually he's a man that has had a real history in terms of social activism," he said.

"Having Anthony Slaughter elected, every way he votes will always be to make sure he's protecting both the environment, but also people as well."

The leader admitted that they weren't going to "sweep" the Senedd vote next year, but said: "I want to up our vote much more than substantially, that's the whole point, is to shift the polling ratings.

"It's going to be incredibly difficult, but we never got into politics to make it easy, and transforming the country should never be easy."

The Green Party has never had a member elected to the Senedd.