ABSTRACT
The Belgian Green parties are, in terms of durability, electoral performance, stability, presence in elected bodies and level of structural development, among the most successful Green parties in western Europe, This ‘success’ must however be defined and qualified. In this chapter, I shall focus on the relevance of two elements as explanatory factors in the rise and success of the Belgian Greens: environmental issues and, more fundamentally, party-political competition. I shall argue that the Belgian political system and institutional setting have strongly-and most often positively-influenced the fortunes of the Greens as autonomous newcomers on the political scene.
