From a green high tide to government participation: the successes of ECOLO and GROEN in the 2019 Belgian elections
Résumé
On 26 May 2019, over 7 million voters went to the booths to elect 21 Members of the European Parliament, 150 Members of the Belgian (federal) Chamber of Representatives, 124 Members of the Flemish Parliament, 75 Members of the Walloon Parliament, 89 Members of the Parliament of the Region of Brussels-Capital and 25 Members of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community. Of the total of 484 MPs directly elected, 72 were from a green party, many more than the 41 greens elected in 2014 (Dandoy, 2015). Despite the multi-level nature of these elections, the campaign was largely driven by national issues, even though with different flavours within language communities, as it is typically the case in Belgium (Baudewyns et al., 2015). These features can be explained by a twofold dynamic. On the one hand, the main political parties compete at all levels of government. On the other, the Belgian party system is split along language lines, meaning that the Dutch-, French-and German-speaking parties compete in different electoral districts (Dandoy, et al, 2015). The Belgian green parties are part of, but also somewhat apart from, these dynamics. ECOLO (the French-and German-speaking green party) and GROEN (the Dutch-speaking green party) came separately to life in the early 1980s but work closely together; both parties presented joint lists in local elections and included candidates from the other party on their lists. They also formed a joint parliamentary party group in the Chamber of Representatives, in contrast with the traditional parties that were once unitary and then split.
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
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