Groen (political party)
Groen, founded as Agalev, is a green Flemish political party in Belgium. The main pillars of the party are social justice, human rights, and ecologism. Its French-speaking equivalent is Ecolo; the two parties maintain close relations with each other.
History
Agalev
The party's origins can be traced to the early 1970s, specifically the village of Viersel near Antwerp, where Luc Versteylen, a Jesuit priest, led a youth group. Through this he came to hear about the stress children were suffering from due to an increasingly competitive education system. From this, he and his co-thinkers developed a critique of consumerism inspired by the values of early Christianity as an alternative to the modern Catholic church, rejecting competition and consumption in favour of peace, frugality and community. This critique became central to Anders Gaan Leven. The Dioxin affair, a scandal surrounding dioxins in for-consumption chickens just before the elections, played an important role in the Greens' performance. The Greens joined the first Verhofstadt government as part of the "purple-green" federal coalition from 12 July 1999 until 18 May 2003. Representing Agalev in this federal government, Magda Aelvoet was Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Public Health and the Environment. She tabled legislation on gay marriage, making Belgium the second country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.Within the same legislature, Magda Aelvoet left her position due to her opposition of a Belgian arms delivery to Nepal, and was succeeded by fellow party member Jef Tavernier.
Also following the elections of 1999, the party joined the Flemish Government, which was composed of the same parties. Agalev supplied two ministers: Mieke Vogels became responsible for Wellbeing, Health and Equal opportunities, and Vera Dua for Agriculture and Environment.
Renaming to Groen! (2003)
In the federal elections of 2003, Agalev scored less than 5% and lost all their seats. The next day, Jos Geysels resigned as party leader. The sitting ministers in the Flemish government Mieke Vogels and Vera Dua stepped down, and were replaced by and respectively.Vera Dua got elected as chairperson, and on the same day, the party's name was changed to Groen!. The party got between 5 and 10% of the votes through the elections of the early 00's. They did not participate in a governmental coalition.
Groen (2012–present)
In 2012 the party decided to drop de exclamation mark of their name.After the local and provincial elections of 2014, Groen had a mandate for the first time in the province of Flemish-Brabant. In 2018 the province of East-Flanders followed. The results in Flemish-Brabant had improved though Green wasn't part of the coalition anymore after these elections.
In 2019, there were elections on the regional, federal and European level. At this time the school strike for climate movement had dominated the media, so the party Groen was expected to grow substantially. An total victory didn't happen, though the party gained seats on all levels.
On the regional level of Brussels-Capital, Groen participated in a red-green-blue coalition. Elke Van den Brandt became Minister of Mobility, Public Works, and Road Safety.
On the federal level, a new government wasn't formed until 17 March 2020, when the coronavirus outbreak urged a minority government with extra plenary powers to be formed. After 6 months a 'regular' majority government was formed and the Vivaldi coalition was sworn in with 2 Groen ministers. Petra De Sutter became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Civil Service, Public Enterprises, Telecommunication and Postal Services, as Europe's first transgender deputy prime minister. Tinne Van der Straeten holds the Ministry of Energy.
In 2022 the members of Groen elected new party leaders: the duo Nadia Naji and Jeremie Vaneeckhout, and the logo changed from green only to a more colourful background.