What is "ecolo"

Ecolo (which officially stands for the backronym Écologistes Confédérés pour l'organisation de luttes originales "Confederated ecologists for the organisation of original struggles", but is really just short for écologiste, French for environmentalist) is a French-speaking political party in Belgium based on green politics. The party is active in Wallonia, the Brussels-Capital Region and the German-speaking Community. Ecolo currently participates in the Brussels regional government.

The party was part of the outgoing federal coalition, but it resigned before the 2003 general election, and was promptly decimated by a resurgent Socialist Party. They however made quite a comeback in the 2007 general election, though without reaching their 1999 peak popularity. In the 10 June 2007 general elections, the party won 8 out of 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 2 out of 40 seats in the Senate which are directly elected.

In the 2010 elections the party won 8 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 2 in the Senate.