Labour is finished in Wales, Green leader Zack Polanski says
BBCLabour is "finished" and people in Wales no longer want to vote for it to continue running the Welsh and UK governments, Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said.
Polanski, who has vowed to replace Labour, said opinion polls look "increasingly like we could win anything from five to 11 Senedd members" in May's election for the Welsh Parliament.
But he told BBC Wales he was "not complacent about any of this".
Joining campaigners in Cardiff on Saturday afternoon, Polanski said Green policies for the election included bringing in rent controls, replacing council tax with a "fairer system" and he promised a "different way of doing politics".
During his visit Polanski was also confronted by a member of the public over comments he made when working as a hypnotherapist in 2013 about how hypnosis could increase a woman's breast size.
The Greens, who say they have more than 8,000 members in Wales, have never won seats in Cardiff Bay.
They are expected to benefit from a more proportional electoral system being introduced for the 7 May election.
Opinion polls suggest Reform and Plaid Cymru are vying for first place, while the Labour Party may lose power after being in charge of the Welsh government since devolution began in 1999.
Polanski, who won the leadership of the Green Party in England and Wales last September, said it was "undoubtedly true that Labour are finished".
"They have been complacent for far too long, and people right across Wales are saying they don't want to vote for the Labour Party anymore," he said.
He argued the Greens were offering something different from what he called the "old parties".
"We're talking about things like rent controls, making sure that we're abolishing council tax and bringing in a fairer system and also bringing water into public hands, as well as lowering people's bills more generally," he said.
"I think encapsulated on all of that, though, is a different way of doing politics."
Addressing Polanski outside the venue on Saturday afternoon, a male heckler asked if the politician could "make by boobs bigger".
Speaking to the BBC's Walescast immediately afterwards, the man said he had confronted Polanski because "he needs to be brought to account for what he said".
During an interview with BBC Wales shortly before the confrontation happened, Polanski said he had "apologised repeatedly" for a "mistake" 13 years ago.
"I stand by that apology," he added.
Wales Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter said while the Greens are in favour of independence for Wales like Plaid Cymru, he also agreed with Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth ruling out a referendum on Wales leaving the UK over the four years of the next Senedd term.
"In many ways, I agree with Rhun on this one, that now is not the time for an independence referendum," he said.
"It would be so divisive.
"This is a moment of change in Welsh politics, after 26 years new people are going to be in government.
"It's not the time to revisit referendums.
"In the next four years it's crucial to make people's lives in Wales better, to show them that things can be better in Wales, even with just the limited powers we've got.
"That opens up the space of conversations further down the line about how people want Wales to be governed."
Additional reporting by Cemlyn Davies
