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Groen!

Green! (Dutch language|Dutch: ; founded as '''Agalev''' (see #Name|name-section below)) is a Politics of Belgium|Belgian green politics|green political party. Green! is the smallest Politics of Flanders|Flemish party with a representation in the federal, regional or European parliament.

Party history

Before 1979

Many of the founders of political party Agalev came from or were inspired by the social movement Agalev. This movement was founded by the Jesuit Luc Versteylen, who had founded the environmental movement Agalev in the 1970s. Core values of this social movement were Silence|quiet, Social solidarity|solidarity and Sobriety|soberness. This movement combined Progressive Christianity|progressive Roman Catholicism in Belgium|Catholicism with environmentalism. It sought to spread environmental consciousness first on a small scale, but since 1973 it took action to protect the environment and promote environmental consciousness. In the Belgian general election, 1974|1974 and Belgian general election, 1976|1976 elections Agalev supported several candidates from traditional parties, these however soon forgot the promises they made. In 1977 the movement entered the elections in several municipalities not to gain seats, but to promote its ideals.

1979-1999

In reaction to these broken promises, a debate erupted within Agalev on whether to set up a political party or to remain independent of politics. In the same year the party contested several municipal elections to no avail. A national level Agalev Working Group was founded to coordinate the new party. It also set up a separate association which could enter in elections. It participated in the European Parliament election, 1979|1979 European elections. Although the party won 2.3% of the votes, it won no seats. In the Belgian general election, 1981|1981 election the party won 4% of vote and two seats in the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives|Chamber of Representatives and one in the Belgian Senate|Senate. Ecolo, the Walloon green party also won two seats in the Chamber and three seats in the Senate. The political party Agalev was officially founded in 1982. It remained separate of the social movement. Prominent members of the movement Agalev, such as founder Versteylen chose not to join the political party Agalev. In the municipal elections of 1982 the party performed particularly well winning more than 10% in several municipalities. In its first periods in parliament the party functioned as a protest party forcing the other parties to take more action against environmental pollution and Third World poverty. The party campaigned on specific environmental issues, such as local Nuclear power debate|anti-nuclear energy protests. The party won two additional seats in the Belgian general election, 1985|1985 elections, two additional seats in Belgian general election, 1987|1987 and one in Belgian general election, 1991|1991: in that year it won seven seats in parliament. Agalev had become a serious political partner for other parties. In 1992 Agalev was asked to support a constitutional change called the Sint-Michiels accords, which would make Belgium a federation. Agalev gave its support in exchange of a tax on bottles, the first ecotax in Belgium. In the Belgian general election, 1995|1995 the party campaigned on a clean hands theme, after a series of political scandals was revealed. The party however lost two seats.

1999-now

In the Belgian general election, 1999|1999 elections Agalev and its Walloon sister party Ecolo performed exceptionally well. A scandal surrounding dioxine in for consumption chickens just before the elections, played an important role in the party's performance. The party won 7,0% of vote and nearly doubled its seats from 5 to 9. The Greens joined the first cabinet Guy Verhofstadt|Verhofstadt. The cabinet further consisted of the liberal Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD) and Reformist Movement (MR) and the socialist Socialist Party - Different (SP.A) and Socialist Party (francophone Belgium)|Parti Socialiste (PS). The cabinet was called Purple (government)|Purple-Green cabinet or the Rainbow cabinet, because of the many political colours in the coalition. Agalev supplied two ministers, Magda Aelvoet who became vice-prime minister and minister for Public Health and the Natural environment|Environment, and Eddy Boutmans who became minister for Development cooperation|Development Cooperation. The party also joined the Flemish government, which was composed of the same Flemish parties Agalev, SP.A and VLD. Mieke Vogels became the Flemish minister for Wellbeing and Development Cooperation and Vera Dua became minister for Agriculture and the Environment. On the national level, the greens, both Ecolo and Agalev were able to enact legislation on several key green issues: the cabinet decided to opt out of nuclear energy, it opened gay marriage|marriage to homosexuals, legalized several thousands of illegal foreigners, enacted an anti-discrimination law and promised to in time spend 0,7% of the national income on development aid. On the Flemish level organic agriculture was promoted, people with handicaps got personal budgets and a system of time credits was enacted to allow people to combine work, care and free time better. The party however faced several crises. Magda Aelvoet left the federal cabinet in August 2002 over a cabinet decision to Arms industry|trade arms with Nepal, which was at Nepalese Civil War|civil war at the time. She was replaced by Jef Tavernier. The Ecolo minister for mobility Isabelle Durant left the cabinet just before the elections over the issue of nighttime airplane flights over Brussels. Finally the party voted in favour of a new election law which enacted a 5% Election threshold in both the Senate and the Chamber. The Belgian general election, 2003|2003 federal election formed a turning point for the party. The party was reduced to 2,6% of the vote, well below the 5% limit and the party lost its seats in the Chamber and Senate. In response to the election results the Flemish ministers Mieke Vogels and Vera Dua stepped down. They were replaced by Adelheid Byttebier and Ludo Sannen respectively. The party renewed is its political profile and made some important strategic decisions. Agalev would continue as an independent Flemish progressive Green party. The party congress rejected the proposal of Agalev-Limburg (Belgium)|Limburg to form a federal Kartel|cartel with the Sp.a and SPIRIT|Spirit . The party also ruled out any participation in the future Flemish government. The party would allow provincial and municipal cartels. The party changed its #Name|name to Groen!. The party changed the function of political secretary to Partijvoorzitter|party president, bringing the party more in line with other Belgian parties. Vera Dua became the first party president. The decision to continue separately led to considerable upheaval within the party, several prominent members, such as Antwerpen councillor Fauzaya Talhaoui and Flemish minister Sannen left the party and joined either SPIRIT or SP.A. Sannen was replaced as minister by Tavernier. Before the Belgian regional elections, 2004|2004 elections Dua announced that if the party was supported by less than 280.000 votes, the independent green political project would end. The party gained enough support to meet this limit, although it lost half of it seats in Flanders compared to the 2000 elections. The party won seats in every provincial district except Limburg, where the support to cooperate with SP.A and SPIRIT was greatest. In the Belgian general election, 2007|10 June 2007 federal election, the party regained representation in both the Chamber and the Senate. It got 265,828 votes (4% of total) and four seats. The regional (for Flemish Parliament) and European elections of June 2009 were generally devoted to promote the concept of a green economy as an answer to the national and global economic crisis. The results of the election were below the expected and stranded on a status quo. Chairwoman Mieke Vogels chose to give up her presidency and was succeeded by Wouter Van Besien in October 2009.

Name

The party was founded as Agalev which meant '''A'''nders '''Ga'''an '''Lev'''en (English: to start living differently). This conveyed the green message that humans need to choose alternative lifestyles which are more sustainable. When the party registered at the election authority, it was forced to supply a meaning for each initial. The party thus ran under the name '''A'''nders '''G'''aan '''A'''rbeiden, '''L'''even, '''E'''n '''V'''rijen (English: going to work, live and have sex differently), improvised and not entirely serious, but legally correct. After the 2003 election defeat the party renewed its political profile. This also involved a name change to Groen! (English: Green!). The name conveyed a closer alliance to the Worldwide green parties|worldwide green movement with the word green and an independent and positive nature with !|exclamation mark.

Ideology and issues

As a traditional green politics|green party, the three core values of Agalev were ecology, peace and participatory democracy. In the early years the party specifically sought to overcome traditional Cleavage (politics)|cleavages (liberal-socialist, catholic-secular and Flemish-Belgian). Since the 1980s the ideals of Multiculturalism|diversity and social justice have also taken a prominent role. The party now places itself explicitly in the left/progressive camp. In its current political program it connected these three values by the concept of quality of life.

Representation

In this table the election results of Agalev/Green! in House of Representatives, Senate and European elections is represented, as well as the results of regional elections for Flanders and Brussels. The party's political leadership is represented as well. If Green! was part of the governing federal coalition, then its minister is listed.

Organization

Organizational structure

The highest organ of Green! is the party congress, which is open to all members. The party has a relatively decentralized organization with strong municipal branches and a relatively small national organization. For a long time the party did not have a Partijvoorzitter|party president who set out the political strategy, but a party secretary with far less power. In 2003 the party changed this situation. In contrast to other parties Green! MPs face relatively strong regulation: the party does not allow to multiple offices per person, while it is traditional for Belgian MPs to be both mayor of municipality and federal MP for instance; furthermore MPs are not allowed to run for more than two terms; to ensure gender equality every second candidate on the party list has to be female; finally a high percentage of the income of MPs is taxed by the party. For Belgian standards Green! has relatively little members. It ranges from 2,000 to 6,500. On average this is only 1% of the Green! voters. Traditionally Belgian parties have about 10% of their voter-base as member. The party's youth organization, Young Green! (earlier Young Agalev) has grown out of local groups of young Groen members, active since the late eighties and early nineties. These local groups started coordinated action in 1996. In 1998 Jong Groen was officially founded.

International organisations

Green! is a member of the European Green Party and the Global Greens. The party hosted the founding congress of the European Federation of Green Parties.

Relationships to social organisations

Green! is ideologically and historically linked to the environmental movement Agalev, which was founded by the Jesuit Luc Versteylen. The party and the social movement are separate entities. Green! still has strong contacts with environmental organizations. It has not developed a pillarization|pillar of social organizations around it as other parties have.

Relationships to other parties

The party has relatively good relations with the SP.A-Spirit|SP.A-SPIRIT Kartel|cartel. It was asked to join them in 2003. It refused, however. Furthermore, the party has maintained good relations with its Walloon sister party, Ecolo.

International comparison

Internationally Groen! is comparable to the larger European Green parties, especially the German Alliance '90/The Greens which has also been in government although more successfully. The European Greens are more realist than the Green Party (United States)|American and Green Party of England and Wales|English and Welsh green parties, but also in many cases more leftwing and internationalist.