| Description | Catholic center-left 'green' Flemish sister party of the Walloon Ecolo. Party began as arguably the first environmentalist association ever to be established, beginning as the movement "Agalev," an acronym of Anders Gaan Leven (Start Living Differently), founded by the Jesuit minister Luc Versteylen in 1973. The Agalev movement decided to run in national elections held on November 8, 1981, taking two seats in the Chamber and one in the Senate, while its Walloon, French-speaking counterpart, calling itself "Ecolo," picked up two seats in the Chamber and three seats in the Senate that year. Both parties worked closely together in national legislative matters. After internal troubles which persisted up to Federal elections held on May 18, 2003 brought about legislative devastation to the party, it decided to fundamentally re-structure, 'clean house' and change its name to Groen! by November 2003. After the exclamation point in Groen! failed to excite, party struck it off in January 2012. Party recovered after elections held in 2014, taking 6 seats in the Belgian Chamber and 3 in the Senate. Party has been co-chaired by Nadia Naji and Jeremie Vaneeckhout since June 11, 2022. |
