In Massembre, in front of hundreds of members, activists, and elected officials gathered for the Popular Ecology Festival, co-presidents Marie Lecocq and Samuel Cogolati issued a clear call: “Let’s take back control.” The time has come, no longer for waiting, but for action and transformation.
As the summer of 2025 falls in a series of abnormally hot summers, marked by massive fires, droughts, and growing inequality, the Greens’ speech sought to sound the alarm. “While Europe has been burning all summer, our government is calling for a climate pause. We reject this political madness,” declared Samuel Cogolati.
The federal government, for its part, has decided: its priority for the new term is to find €4 billion. Not to refinance the justice system. Not to phase out pesticides. Not for our seniors. No, to buy 45 F-35 fighter jets, American ones delivered and controlled by Trump. This is the picture: a government on hold on climate change and totally disconnected from the real battles that need to be fought.
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Faced with this, the Greens are putting forward a clear plan, in three words: autonomy, solidarity, responsibility.
Autonomy: because depending on gas or oil from Putin, the Gulf, or Trump to power our economy is suicide. We must free up investment in wind power, insulate our homes, end fossil fuel subsidies, and redirect our resources toward a fossil fuel detox.
Solidarity: the kind that connects and protects. It provides care in hospitals without distinction. It refuses to throw children out onto the streets. It supports the sick, the most vulnerable, and the 1,000 citizen initiatives that keep our society standing. It says “we” in the face of those who divide.
Responsibility: towards unborn children, the nature we inhabit, the air we breathe. Planting, protecting, banning toxic products. But also drawing a line in the sand, in a world where everything can be bought and fundamental rights are faltering.
This project is rooted in reality, that of teachers, caregivers, farmers, and all those who take care of the country. “Too many Belgians work hard for nothing. We are proposing a fair tax reform. This is not ideology, it is respect. This is concrete solidarity,” emphasized Marie Lecocq.
Far from cynicism and divisions, the Greens are reaching out to all the country’s progressive forces. “Together, let’s not let ourselves be consumed by the flames. We have a plan, a collective, and a promise: to take back control. That’s our ecology: clear-eyed about the world as it is, but determined to change it. Not with slogans or soundbites, but with a direction, the means, and a deep respect for those who are still keeping this country standing. We don’t promise miracles. We promise to fight. For justice. For emancipation. For the planet we leave to our children. And to give back to politics what it should never have lost: courage, meaning, dignity,” thunder Marie Lecocq and Samuel Cogolati.
