Ecolo

Ecolo (), officially Écologistes Confédérés pour l'organisation de luttes originales (, ) is a French-speaking political party in Belgium based on green politics. The party is active in Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region.

Ecolo's Flemish equivalent is Groen; the two parties maintain close relations with each other.

Name Ecolo is officially a backronym for Écologistes Confédérés pour l'organisation de luttes originales "Confederated Ecologists for the Organisation of Original Struggles", but is really just short for écologistes, French for environmentalists.

History Ecolo's origins can be traced to the 1970s. In 1971 Paul Lannoye left the Walloon Rally to found the party Démocratie Nouvelle (DN). DN's 1973 manifesto called for a decentralised form of federalism in Belgium with a major role for popular initiatives and an economy which prioritises satisfying people's basic needs and self-cultivation over unnecessary and environmentally damaging consumption, themes which formed a major part of Ecolo's message during the first half of the 1980s. In the mid-1970s DN members made contact with environmentalists in Wallonia, as well as Friends of the Earth's sections in France and the United States, leading to the establishment of a Belgian section of the movement in 1976. DN formed an electoral list, Combat Pour l'Ecologie et l'Autogestion, to contest that year's local elections in Namur, scoring 1.9 percent of the vote.

Multiple ecology lists contested the 1977 and 1978 Belgian general elections in Wallonia. In 1979 the Europe-Ecologie list contested the first European Parliament elections in Francophone Belgium, with Lannoye at its head and 13 of the 17 candidates being Friends of the Earth members. The list's platform advocated a Europe of the Regions, referendums, a green economy, Third World solidarity, nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from NATO. It scored 5.1 percent in the French-speaking electoral college, including 7.7 percent in the arrondissement of Namur and 22 percent in the Canton of St. Vith.

Ecolo was established as a permanent party in March 1980. Although several other ecological lists contested the 1981 Belgian general election in Wallonia, Ecolo was the only one to contest all constituencies across French-speaking Belgium. It achieved 5.9 percent and 3.1 percent of the vote in Wallonia and the Brussels region respectively, electing two Representatives and three Senators, whilst in the concurrent provincial elections four councillors were elected in Liège Province, three won seats in Namur, and one each gained seats in Hainaut Province and Luxembourg.

The following year the party won 7.1 percent and 75 seats in municipal elections. The party won six seats on Liège city council, holding the balance of power between the left and right alliances. They made a coalition agreement with the left, securing three of the council's eleven schepen and commitments to increasing public participation, incorporating quality of life concerns into urban planning, divestment from nuclear power and ending political patronage. Whilst some gains were made regarding participation and nuclear divestment, other policies were thwarted by the city's parlous financial state and the council's lack of power compared to the national government and private developers.

In the 1984 European elections, Ecolo achieved 9.9 percent in the Francophone electoral college and elected François Roelants du Vivier as an MEP. In the 1985 Belgian general election the party scored 6.5 percent in Wallonia, increasing their number of Representatives to five and maintaining their share of Senate seats.

Despite this electoral success, tensions within the party spilled out into the open in 1986 after a motion proposed by Lannoye to professionalise the party executive was voted down, resulting in him and two allies withdrawing their candidacies for the executive. The same year Ecolo Representative Olivier Deleuze resigned his parliamentary seat and party membership alongside two senior party officials after the party executive voted in favour of a proposal put forward by Lannoye for Ecolo members of the Walloon Regional Council to vote in support of Liberal Reformist Party colleagues on specific issues in exchange for support from the latter for some Ecolo proposals. Some members objected to the proposal as it involved cooperation with a party of the right, whilst others felt that Lannoye and his allies has strong-armed the executive into voting for the motion. The situation was resolved when the executive voted to approve Lannoye's professionalisation proposal, he was re-elected to the executive, and the Liberals rejected Ecolo's cooperation proposal. However, a spate of resignations from the party among elected representatives caused financial problems, as the vast majority of the party's budget came from public funding including taking a cut of elected officials' salaries.

Although the party scored the same share of the vote in the 1987 Belgian general election as in the 1985 federal election, they lost two Representatives whilst retaining their three Senate seats.

Ecolo was part of the 1999 Verhofstadt I Government, but withdrew from the coalition before the 2003 general election, which saw it lose nearly two thirds of its 14 federal parliamentary seats in the face of a resurgent Socialist Party. The party made quite a comeback, however, in the 2007 general election, though failing to match the peak popularity it had enjoyed in 1999. In the general election of 10 June 2007, the party won eight out of 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and two out of the 40 directly elected seats in the Senate.

In the 2010 elections, the party again won eight seats in the Chamber of Representatives and two in the Senate.IBZ: Official Results , retrieved 20 August 2010

Political views Ecolo is a political party that promotes sustainable development policies, aimed at preserving the environment and combating climate change, in the interests of current and future generations. The party seeks to create a more democratic and inclusive society by encouraging new political practices and strengthening citizen participation in a model of participatory democracy.

Electoral positioning During the 2019 election campaign, the RePresent research centre — composed of political scientists from five universities (UAntwerpen, KU Leuven, VUB, UCLouvain and ULB) — studied the electoral programmes of Belgium's thirteen main political parties. This study classified the parties on two "left-right" axes, from "-5" (extreme left) to "5" (extreme right): a "classic" socio-economic axis, which refers to state intervention in the economic process and the degree to which the state should ensure social equality, and a socio-cultural axis, which refers to a divide articulated around an identity-based opposition on themes such as immigration, Europe, crime, the environment, emancipation, etc.

Ecolo then presented a programme marked on the left on the socio-economic level (−3.87), and close to the extreme left on the socio-cultural level (−4.37).

The RePresent centre repeated the exercise during the 2024 election campaign for the twelve main parties. Ecolo's positioning changed little on the socio-economic axis (−3.81), and it became the most left-wing party on the socio-cultural axis (−4.62).

Election results Chamber of Representatives Election Votes % Seats +/- Government 1977 3,834 0.1 0 1978 21,224 0.4 0 1981 132,312 2.2 2 1985 152,483 2.5 3 1987 157,988 2.6 2 1991 312,624 5.1 7 1995 243,362 4.0 4 1999 457,281 7.4 5 2003 201,118 3.1 7 2007 340,378 5.1 4 2010 313,047 4.8 0 2014 222,524 3.3 2 2019416,4526.1 7 2024 204,438 2.9 10

Senate Election Votes % Seats +/- 1977 7,558 0.1 1978 43,883 0.8 1981 153,989 2.6 3 1985 163,361 2.7 1 1987 168,491 2.8 1991 323,683 5.3 4 1995 258,635 4.3 4 1999 458,658 7.4 1 2003 208,868 3.2 2 2007 385,466 5.8 1 2010 353,111 5.5 0

Regional Brussels Parliament Election Votes % Seats +/- Government Overall 1989 44,874 10.2 (#5) 1995 37,308 9.0 (#4) 1 1999 77,969 21.3 (#2) 18.3 (#2) 7 2004 37,908 9.7 (#4) 8.3 (#4) 1 2009 82,663 20.2 (#3) 17.9 (#3) 9 2014 41,368 10.1 (#5) 8.9 (#5) 8 2019 74,246 19.1 (#2) 16.2 (#2) 7 202438,3869.85 (#5)#5 8

German-speaking Community Parliament Election Votes % Seats +/- Government 1990 5,897 15.0 (#5) 1995 5,128 13.9 (#4) 1 1999 4,694 12.7 (#5) 0 2004 2,972 8.2 (#5) 1 2009 4,310 11.5 (#5) 1 2014 3,591 9.5 (#6) 1 2019 4,902 12.5 (#5) 1 2024 3,644 9.1 (#6) 1

Walloon Parliament Election Votes % Seats +/- Government 1995 196,988 10.4 (#4) 1999 347,225 18.2 (#3) 6 2004 167,916 8.5 (#4) 11 2009 372,067 18.5 (#3) 11 2014 141,813 8.6 (#4) 10 2019 294,631 14.5 (#3) 8 2024 144,189 7.0 (#5) 7

European Parliament Election List leader Votes % Seats +/− EP Group Overall 1979 Paul Lannoye 107,833 5.14 (#5) 1.98 New − 1984 François Roelants du Vivier 220,663 9.85 (#4) 3.86 1 RBW 1989 Paul Lannoye 371,053 16.56 (#4) 6.29 1 G 1994 Paul Lannoye Unclear 290,859 5,714 13.02 (#4) 14.90 (#4) 4.97 1 1999 Paul Lannoye Didier Cremer 525,316 6,276 22.70 (#3) 17.01 (#3) 8.59 2 Greens/EFA 2004 Pierre Jonckheer Lambert Jaegers 239,687 3,880 9.84 (#4) 10.49 (#4) 3.75 2 2009 Isabelle Durant Claudia Niessen 562,081 6,025 22.88 (#3) 15.58 (#3) 8.64 1 2014 Philippe Lamberts Erwin Schöpges 285,196 6,429 11.69 (#3) 16.66 (#2) 4.36 1 2019 Philippe Lamberts Shqiprim Thaqi 485,655 6,675 19.91 (#2) 16.37 (#2) 7.31 1 2024 Saskia Bricmont Shqiprim Thaqi 259,745 4,819 10.06 (#5) 11.10 (#6) 3.71 1

Elected politicians

Current European Parliament Philippe Lamberts Saskia Bricmont

Chamber of Representatives 2010 – 2014: Ronny Balcaen Juliette Boulet Olivier Deleuze (resigned in 2012; replaced by Lahssaini Fouad) Zoé Genot Muriel Gerkens Georges Gilkinet Eric Jadot Thérèse Snoy et d'Oppuers

Brussels-Capital Region Parlement 2009 – 2014: Aziz Albishari Dominique Braeckman Jean-Claude Defosse Céline Delforge Anne Dirix Anne Herscovici Zakia Khattabi Vincent Lurquin Alain Maron Jacques Morel Ahmed Mouhssin Marie Nagy Yaron Pesztat Arnaud Pinxteren Barbara Trachte Vincent Vanhalewyn

Past European Parliament 1989 – 1994 Brigitte Ernst de la Greate

Chamber of Representatives 1995 – 1999: Philippe Dallons Olivier Deleuze Thierry Detienne Mylène Nys (20 April 1999) Martine Schüttringer Jean-Pierre Viseur 1999 – 2003: Marie-Thérèse Coenen Martine Dardenne Vincent Decroly Olivier Deleuze → Zoé Genot (14 July 1999) Thierry Detienne → Muriel Gerkens (23 July 1999) Claudine Drion Michèle Gilkinet Mirella Minne Géraldine Pelzer-Salandra Paul Timmermans → Bernard Baille (1 September 2002) Jean-Pierre Viseur → Gérard Gobert (10 January 2001)

2003–2007: Zoé Genot Muriel Gerkens Gérard Gobert Marie Nagy 2007–2010: Juliette Boulet Zoé Genot Muriel Gerkens Georges Gilkinet Philippe Henry Fouad Lahssaini Jean-Marc Nollet Thérèse Snoy et d'Oppuers

Brussels-Capital Region Parlement 2004–2009: Dominique Braeckman Alain Daems Céline Delforge Christos Doulkeridis Josy Dubié Paul Galand Yaron Pesztat

Important figures José Daras Josy Dubié Isabelle Durant Muriel Gerkens Evelyne Huytebroeck Jacky Morael Patrick Dupriez Zakia Khattabi

Hélène Ryckmans Tom Zoete

See also

Green party Green politics List of environmental organizations

References