The ballot boxes delivered their results the day after the municipal and provincial elections which were held across the country this Sunday. They confirmed certain expectations or created surprises. In Wallonia, it was one of the most anticipated duels, the one between Georges-Louis Bouchez and Nicolas Martin. And the winner is Nicolas Martin. The outgoing socialist mayor should logically stand for a new mandate. He achieved a nice personal score with 15,152 preferred votes, far ahead of Georges-Louis Bouchez and his 7,148 nominal votes. The PS also remains the leading party in Charleroi and Liège. Namur, the Walloon capital, devotes Les Engagés to Maxime Prévot (43.6% of the vote).
In the Brussels Region, Défi disappears from the political landscape in several large municipalities such as Brussels City and Anderlecht. Défi also loses its mayorship in Schaerbeek. Ecolo is also losing ground in the Capital Region and going from three to no mayorates. The bet was won, however, for the PS of Philippe Close in Brussels-City: the PS – Vooruit list totaled 28.1% of the votes, with the MR however achieving a sharp increase just behind (21.2%, + 7.3%). The Reformers also retained their mayorates in Etterbeek and Uccle.
In Flanders, the N-VA comes comfortably in the lead in Antwerp with 37%. The neck and neck race announced in the media with Jos D’Haese of the PTB-PVDA did not materialize. In Ninove again, Vlaams Belang obtained an absolute majority and The Open VLD, the Prime Minister’s party, is collapsing in certain symbolic cities.
