A Highway to Civil Society

22,8 % for Écolo, 16,3 for Europe Écologie in the European elections of 2009: has the road to a Green breakthrough been found? Écolo’s strategy was building consensus about program and peadership, EE’s was ‘clever casting’  and a casino-like bravour, said Michel Mosser, communications specialist for EE: As long as we win, we play’. But both ‘built a highway to civili society’, as Écolo’s MP Eric Jadot said, by involving social, cultural and business players (Écolo) and ngo celebrities (EE).

Is that highway the road to lasting Green success? The much lower socore (7,3) of Groen!, the other Belgian Green party, suggest it is: Groen! has lost many former links to society and experiences difficulties establishing new ones.  ’For Greens, social movements are both the roots’, said the Brussels political scientist  Régis Dandoy, ‘and an insurance to rely upon in difficult times. And whereas all political parties can put Green issues in their programme, Greens can – and should – help to build a civil society.’ Read the report.