From European Surprise to General Breakthrough

Heerlen 8, Annual EGP Supporters’ meeting, Brussels, 29-31 Jan. 2010 – full report of the opening plenary

Peter Alberts (info@peter-alberts.eu), Lin Tabak

Panel: Eric Jadot (member of the Belgian federal Parliament for Écolo), Michel Mosser (communications advisor Europe Écologie, former president Jeunes Verts and co-founder ÉcoloJ), Johan Hamels (former secretary Groen! and former treasurer EGP), Regis Dandoy (political Scientist Université Libre de Bruxelles). Moderation: Eline van Nistelrooy (spokeswoman FYEG)

Écolo grabbed 22,88 % of the European votes in June, and Europe Écologie 16,2, scores quite uncommon for Green parties. How did they do it? Might other parties draw lessons, and would it be possible that political ecology is on its way to a breakthrough as a leading force? These were the main questions in a lively opening debate in the stately Brussels Parliament chaired by FYEG’s new talent Eline van Nistelrooy. Two party leaders, Henk Nijhof (GroenLinks) and Wouter van Besien (Groen!,) and Écolo’s strategist Jean-Marc Nollet unfortunately had to be replaced – by Jadot and Hamels who played their role surprisingly well.

Civil society glue

Mosser: ‘A gathering with civil society. Or more precisely: with individuals from that society. After the catastrophe of 2007, players from civil society had made several attempts at a common ecology list, but Les Verts were left out. That lit a red light with some leaders, especially Dany Cohn-Bendit, president of the Green Group in the European Parliament. He managed to bring Greens and civil society players around one table. The result was a successful marriage, in which civil society brought charisma and credible people, and Les Verts a network and campaigning skills. The marriage also helped to overcome internal differences. Apart from some leftists who left to become the green margin of the red – and were replaced by people from the centre, internal factions have been reunited, with civil society as glue. The European elections were so successful that the method now is repeated for the regional elections in March, with names from regional ngo’s.’

Casino

Will the success last? ‘At the moment it is like in a casino: as long as we win, we play. The polls for the regional elections are promising (they show double figures of up to 15 % and more in some regions, lt). And Dany has promised 100 seats in the national Parliament in 2012. I wouldn’t know where to find the people to occupy them – we have just over 6000 members; the Dutch Greens have three times as many for a population one fourth of ours. And as an organisation Europe Écologie still practically doesn’t exist: it has no members and practically no staff. But it has smart ideas, the best of which was that Facebook page which doubled the number of activists. Give us one electoral cycle to prove if the approach works.’

Écolo has survived that a cycle. The Walloon Greens had participated in government until 2003, after a splendid 18 % in 1998, but had slammed the coalition door just before the end of term, after four years of external and internal fights that started right after their entrance in government.

Jadot: ‘The decision to participate had been very difficult. 52 % of the congress voted in favour, 48 % against. Our rescue strategy consisted of a process of introspection, which made us understand that voters aren’t interested in internal debates. We found a new, visible leadership (impersonated by Jean-Michel Javaux who still chairs the party, lt), and consensus about the message. That has saved us, together with the decision to cease to be Green-only, and write a program that appeals to all citizens. In fact, we now have the most global program of all: the liberals only address lawyers and doctors, and the social democrats appeal mainly to low-income groups.’

Highway

Q: What role had social society in your recovery?

Jadot: ’A very important one. We built a highway to civil society, by systematically establishing contacts with social and cultural, but also economic players.’

Dandoy: ‘For Green Parties, strong connections to civil society are vital in several ways: almost all Green parties have been born out of social movements against nuclear power, pro peace and others, who have helped to build Green ideology.’

The recent history of Groen! (Flanders) might confirm this position. The party equally saw a downfall after four years in government, worse even: it lost all seats in the federal parliament. It recovered, but with a score of 7,3 %, which was a lot less spectacular than that of its Walloon counterpart.

Hamels, party secretary in those years: ‘A big difference with Écolo, which participated in government in cities like Liège, is that we had almost no experience in government. Until the end of the eighties, all local branches had to propose 5 to 7 points the others had had to accept before the negotiations even could start. Our mission was, to be ‘different’, to have the better ideas. And we almost entirely relied on the success of the peace movement, which almost automatically was good for 7 %. Only afterwards, we saw that in the eyes of the voters the Greens’ mission was, to fulfil their aspirations and hopes.

Dioxin chickens

Moreover, society had changed and support from pro-peace voters wasn’t sufficient anymore. That we ended up in government was largely due to a present called food crisis (a scandal with dioxin-poisoned chickens, lt), which brought us 12 %. Unlike Écolo, our members had no problems with government participation. But four years later, we were left with 3,9 %, not even enough to pass the threshold for parliament. That was in May 2003. In December we were down to 2 %. The Green party was all but dead, and the social democrats asked us every week to join them – (which, in fact, some politicians did, lt).  Then we asked ourselves: do we really want to wake up without a Green party one morning? After a negative answer, we worked our way back the iron way, through messaging, professional camera training, etcetera.’

Q (Luc Lamote, a former party executive member from Antwerp);’ But we didn’t repair our bonds with civil society. In former days we WERE civil society, we were the leaders of it. These days we are marginal. As a head of a professional school for naughty children, I have to deal with social actors all the time. Very rarely I meet anyone who is a member of Groen!.

Hamels: ‘Getting people from civil society interested is very difficult, because other parties have more to offer in terms of seats. A second difference with Écolo is, that Flanders has an electorate that is a lot more conservative. In the last 3 or 4 national elections the extreme right and the liberal Pujadists have scored an average of 35 %.’

No members

Another factor might be the leadership. In Écolo, the new leader has been in charge since 2003; in EE long time protagonist Cohn-Bendit made his comeback. Groen! on the other hand, has continued to change faces.

Dandoy: ‘Coherence and stability of the party elite is important for voters. Stable faces represent a stable message. A party should better not choose new leaders every two years – and certainly not immediately after an elections defeat: that would be a proof of internal division and defeat. And more in general: showing division never is good. I know Greens have a different tradition; they are more open to debate. In many parties, each member can take part in the decision making process. But the internal debate shouldn’t be shown to the outside world too much.’

Q (Lin Tabak): Where do the members come in? Écolo stresses professional (re-)organisation as a means to overcome the defeat, Europe Écologie found big names from outside.

Jadot: We lost almost 2/3 of professional staff. Without the members, we wouldn’t have been able to survive.

Mosser: ‘Europe Écologie has no members. We used a social networking site everyone could join, to become actively involved s a campaigner. In the end we had 15 thousand activists, more than twice as many as Les Verts had when we started. But their role is limited: the casting of the lists has been done by the leaders. And the programme was drafted by professionals paid for the job.’

Insurance

Q (Peter Alberts): ‘What role does government participation play? No party would say no when invited nowadays, but when participating in government it has to compromise and loses credibility.’

Dandoy: ‘That indeed is the big challenge for Greens. As a political party you should be prepared to take up government responsibilities, because that’s what political parties are for and what the voters expect. If you back off, you are a chicken. But by participating you have to compromise and will be seen as a traitor to principles. So in both cases you probably lose votes. Perhaps a slow ascent isn’t so bad after all: a sudden big success usually doesn’t last very long. Take time to grow roots. And convince people to join before other parties grab them.

And that is where civil society comes in again, as an insurance: after the electoral loss almost inevitable after government participation, there is a danger of disappearance, especially for new parties. But civil society will still be there to help Greens to recover and stabilise.’

Green Issue not big enough?

Hamels: ‘What you suggest, is humiliating for the voters. For many, a vote for Écolo was an expression of hope and a desire to change.’

Q: Could the success of Écolo and Europe Écologie be the start of a breakthrough of political ecology as a leading political force – just like liberalism and socialism have been leading in the past?

Dandoy: ‘I don’t believe so. The Green issue just isn’t big enough – only a very small number of countries have Green members of parliament. And if you are not careful, others will claim it. But what Greens can, and should do, is create a Green civil society.

Mosser: ‘I believe in France we can achieve more; we are the only progressive political force – and should be able to propose a programme that other social parties can join.’