To determine which faces will embody this new generation at the head of the party, activists will be invited to choose a new pair at a general assembly to be held on July 13 in Louvain-la-Neuve.
Binomial
As a reminder, the Ecolo statutes stipulate in article 68 that the federal co-presidency “must be mixed and must include one member from the Brussels Regional Group and the other from a Walloon Regional Group“.
This Monday, the party announced that two pairs were candidates.
One is composed of Marie Lecocq and Samuel Cogolati; the other of Marie-Colline Leroy and Gilles Vanden Burre.
Among the priority projects awaiting the next co-presidents is the reorganization of the party, where a restructuring plan is currently being developed.
Samuel Cogolati: “It’s a new lease of life that we are offering avec Marie Lecocq”
During the last five years, Hutois Samuel Cogolati distinguished himself on the benches of the House of Representatives, but was unable to retain his seat as deputy during last June’s election. It is with the Brussels MP – former municipal councilor in Rochefort – Marie Lecocq that he now aspires to become co-president of the party.
Samuel Cogolati, why did you decide to present your candidacy for the head of Écolo?
“The party today finds itself in a rather serious situation. The results of the last elections mark a very clear step backwards. It is therefore urgent to transform the party into a broader movement, which inspires, which reconnects with civil society, with businesses, with intermediary bodies, etc.“
guillementIt is urgent to transform the party into a broader movement, which inspires enthusiasm and reconnects with civil society.
What will be the core of your project?
“It is a popular ecology project, that is to say an ecology which is aimed at everyone, which is not limited to certain categories of people. It reconciles ecology with the agricultural world, with that of businesses, and ultimately with everyone. Because climate change, as we have seen with the floods of 2021 in particular, leads to disasters that affect everyone. Our desire is therefore to popularize political ecology for as many people as possible..”
What are the advantages of your application with Marie Lecocq?
“It’s a new lease of life that we’re offering. We are both under 35. And we have great complementarity.”
That’s to say?
“She comes from the associative world and I from the academic world. She is active at the regional level and I come from the federal level. She embodies the ecology of the cities and I that of the fields, the rural ecology, the one which pleads for access to medicine for all in our countryside, for an open train station nearby. She is green ecology and I am human rights.”
Marie-Colline Leroy: “An ecology of reality, which is part of people’s daily lives and at the local level”
In May 2023, Marie-Colline Leroy, a federal MP since 2019, succeeded Sarah Schlitz as Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Opportunities and Diversity. But she failed to retain her seat as MP, nor did Gilles Vanden Burre from Ixelles, former group leader in the Chamber, with whom she makes up this pair of candidates.
Marie-Colline Leroy, what is the main asset of your duo?
“We have acquired experience that can be put to the service of the party. When I arrived as Secretary of State, it was also in a context of crisis, where activists were waiting for us to bounce back to continue working..”
Is the situation the same here?
“It is very different. But we must intervene again.”
What should be done?
“The party must be renewed with a strong message. It must be possible to unite, negotiate and decide if necessary. Both internally and externally.“
How can your time at Vivaldi benefit you?
“I had to defend clear and strong positions on sensitive subjects, affirm positions that remain fundamentally deep values of Ecolo. It was necessary to unite, gather, work in serenity, negotiate, not let ourselves be taken where we do not want to go..”
What is the heart of the message that you will carry with Gilles Vanden Burre?
“It is the ecology of reality, that is to say which is part of people’s daily lives and at the local level. We must show how this ecology can be at the heart of the solutions. And for that, we need clearer language, to help us understand that ecology is everywhere around us.”
guillementWe must show how this ecology of reality can be at the heart of the solutions.
How are you going to do this?
“We want to maintain our fundamentals, but we need a deep transformation of the party. From the cellar to the attic. There is great collective solidity and great liveliness in the party. And our activists are hyperdynamic and resilient..”
Who are they ?
Samuel Cogolati and Marie Lecocq are figures of the young generation of French-speaking Greens. The first, aged 35 and originally from Huy, was a deputy in the Chamber between 2019 and 2024. This close friend of Jean-Michel Javaux quickly distinguished himself in parliament, notably in the fight for the Uighur minority in China , which landed him on a list of political figures sanctioned by Beijing.
The second, aged 32, is a Brussels MP, co-president of the Brussels regional of Ecolo and one of the few environmentalist parliamentarians to have retained her mandate after the storm of June 9. She is also involved in issues of democracy as well as the rights of women and minorities.
The other duo embodies more experience. Aged 40, Marie-Colline Leroy was Secretary of State for Equal Opportunities in the outgoing federal government. This former teacher from Hainaut took over the post in a difficult context marked by the resignation of Sarah Schlitz and brought to fruition before the elections issues in the field of women’s rights dear to the Greens.
At 46, Gilles Vanden Burre has two parliamentary mandates to his credit, after having worked in the business world. The Ixelles native was group leader during the last legislature, a delicate position when a party sits in the majority. (Belga)
