Editing Green party (section)

====Belgian and German roots====
The first green parties in Europe were founded in the late 1970s, following the rise of [[environmental awareness]] and the development of [[new social movement]]s. Green parties in Belgium first made a breakthrough. Belgium had Green members of parliament elected first in the 1970s, and with seats on the local council, held the balance of power in the city of Liege, so were the first to go into coalition with the ruling party on that council. In 1979 political campaigns and dissident groups feeling underrepresented in west German politics formed a coalition to contest the 1979 elections to the European Parliament.

Although they did not win any seats, the groups in this association formally agreed to become a party and won a breakthrough in the German national elections of 1983. They were not the first Green Party in Europe to have members elected nationally but the impression was created that they had been, because they attracted the most media attention. This was partly due to their charismatic leader [[Petra Kelly]], a German who was of interest to the American media because she had an American step-father. Since its foundation in 1980 and merger with [[Alliance 90]] after the German reunification, Kelly's party, now named [[Alliance '90/The Greens]], has become one of Europe's most important Green parties. It played an important role in the formation of national-level Green parties in other countries [[Confederation of The Greens|such as Spain]] as well. The forerunner of the Green Party in the [[United Kingdom]] was the [[PEOPLE Party]], formed in [[Coventry]] in 1972. It changed its name to the Ecology Party in 1973 and the Green Party in 1985.