Groen’s co-leaders Nadia Naji and Jeremie Vaneeckhout not candidates for new term
Nadia Naji and Jeremie Vaneeckhout, the co-leaders of Flemish green party Groen, are not candidates to succeed themselves. They announced this on Instagram and in an email to their members. New leadership elections will be held in December.
“Politics is about taking up leadership. But it is also about passing on leadership at the appropriate time,” declared Naji and Vaneeckhout in a video. The co-leaders will remain in office until the Christmas holidays, by then the new party leadership of Groen will have been designated by the members.
Naji and Vaneeckhout took over from Meyrem Almaci in June 2022, barely two years before the recent elections. That time was too short, according to them. Both in June, in the federal, regional and European elections, and in the local elections last Sunday, the party had to deal with disappointing results.
Nevertheless, Naji and Vaneeckhout look back on their time at the party's helm with pride. “We gave it our all every day with great energy and drive, often in challenging circumstances,” they said.
At the end of December, the members of Groen will be able to elect a new leader. Outgoing deputy prime minister Petra De Sutter, who played a prominent role in the lead-up to the June elections and who earned her stripes in the federal government, seems like the logical new leader of the Flemish Greens. But she has until now refused to put herself forward as a candidate for the party’s leadership.
#FlandersNewsService | Nadia Naji and Jeremie Vaneeckhout, the co-leaders of Flemish green party Groen, at the Royal Palace in Brussels © BELGA PHOTO ERIC LALMAND
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