The Ecolo and Groen parties will be submitting a joint list in the upcoming local elections in Beauvechain, Walloon Brabant province.
This is the first time the two parties will be joining forces in an election in Wallonia, the Groen party’s national executive confirmed on Thursday.
Beauvechain, known as Bevekom in Flemish, is home to about 7,200 residents. It is currently governed by the Beauvechain Ensemble, a coalition of the Parti Socialiste (PS), Mouvement Réformateur (MR) and Centre Démocrate Humaniste (CDH, which became Les Engagés after the last election). The coalition enjoys a comfortable absolute majority.
Ecolo became the second party in Beauvechain at elections in 2018, with 19.74% of the vote. This time around, with the broader Ecolo-Groen list, the Greens aim to perform better.
The list is led by Siska Gaeremyn, who is of Flemish origin. “Approximately one in four residents in our villages speaks Dutch,” she said, “We aim to actively involve the Flemish and mixed families living here in community life.”
Steven De Winter, a Dutch speaker, is fourth on the list. “We do not aim to ‘Flemish-ise’ the municipality,” he assured, “Beauvechain will continue to be a rural Walloon village. However, this list aims to create an inclusive and innovative political dynamism.”
The Groen party’s national board confirmed that this is a first in Wallonia. “However, the two parties have been cooperating for a while already, for example in the Chamber and in Brussels,” it noted.
