This morning it was announced that Alice Hooker-Stroud has been elected as the new Leader of the Wales Green Party with Hannah Pudner serving as her deputy.

Hooker-Stroud is the lead list candidate for the party in Mid and West Wales seen by many as the best chance of a Green assembly seat. Her knowledge of ecological science and her bilingualism were strong factors in her election to leader as well as her passionate drive to ensure fighting for climate justice to be the central campaign for the Wales party.

Responding to this news, Alice Hooker-Stroud said:

“This is an exciting time for the Wales Green Party. We enter the Welsh Assembly election as a determined and energetic party, and I believe we can and we will win seats. The Wales Green Party has the solutions to many of the problems we face in our communities. Solutions that tackle not just social, but environmental problems, solutions not just for local problems, but global problems too.”

Hannah Pudner, the new deputy leader, is a candidate on the South Wales Central list and is also standing for the Cardiff West constituency. Pudner has been a director for the NUS in Wales, as well as her current post as Assistant Director at the Open University in Wales. Hannah Pudner’s strong vision for a roadmap to an autonomous Wales Green Party and her defiant response to the Wales Bill alongside her activist presence, contribute to her campaign’s success. On her elections Pudner said:

“I am delighted to be elected as Deputy Leader for Wales Green Party. Wales has a rich history of doing social good. It has a rich history of being radical. But political complacency has set in. I look forward to helping Wales Greens get elected to the Senedd; working for people, for planet, for Wales. Let’s show the world that Wales is a small, but incredibly smart country.”

The election sees the end of Pippa Bartolotti’s term as Welsh Green Party leader and Anthony Slaughter’s as deputy leader, both of whom have advanced the party greatly in the Welsh public’s consciousness culminating in a large general election campaign and a place on the Wales general election television debate.

The news comes as the party open a new office in Cardiff which will be opened officially today.