Members of Belgium's Ecolo party will gather in Louvain-la-Neuve on Sunday to decide on the party's future leadership.
Shortly after midday, members are expected to confirm Marie-Colline Leroy and Gilles Vanden Burre as the new co-presidents of the French-speaking green party. The pair are the only candidates for the position.
During the general assembly, the candidates will present their programme and answer questions from party members before a vote is held. The result is widely expected to deliver a majority support for the duo.
Unlike many other political parties, and even its Flemish counterpart Groen, Ecolo remains committed to a co-presidency model, with a man and a woman sharing leadership on equal footing.
Traditionally, one leader comes from Brussels while the other represents the party's Walloon electoral base.
Party seeking a new momentum
The vote comes as Ecolo hopes to regain momentum after a turbulent period and a disappointing electoral result.
In the June 2024 federal elections, the party suffered heavy losses, retaining only three seats in the Chamber of Representatives, ten fewer than five years earlier.
While Rajae Maouane secured a seat in Brussels, co-president Jean-Marc Nollet lost his seat in the Hainaut constituency. The leadership duo announced their resignation the day after the election.
"We were unable to convince voters," Nollet admitted at the time, also lamenting what he described as a broader deterioration in public debate.
Leadership tensions
In summer 2024, Marie Lecocq and Samuel Cogolati were elected to lead the party, defeating the Leroy–Vanden Burre ticket.
However, their mandate was short-lived. After just over a year, tensions between the two leaders and disagreements over strategy led them to resign in November.
Since then, a temporary collective leadership of five parliamentary group leaders has been running the party.
Leroy and Vanden Burre now hope to bring experience and unity to the role. Leroy previously served as state secretary in the De Croo government, while Vanden Burre was a federal MP for nearly a decade and a former parliamentary group leader.
The pair say they aim to build a project "that unites the party internally" while also being ready to push back politically and engage in the broader cultural debate.
