The town of Ninove (center), west of Brussels, will be the first municipality in Belgium managed by the Flemish far right, after the victory on Sunday of a deputy from Vlaams Belang (VB) in the municipal election.
“I think we made history,” reacted the elected official, Guy D’haeseleer, to his activists. The sanitary cordon “is definitely thrown in the trash”, he added. A reference to the principle applied in Belgium – a country governed by coalitions – that the extreme right is systematically excluded from majorities.
The “Forza Ninove” list, a local variation of the VB and related parties, won the election in this town of 40,000 inhabitants with 47.4% of the votes, compared to 30.8% for that of the outgoing mayor, a liberal. . This result ensures Guy D’haeseleer and his running mates an absolute majority of seats on the municipal council (the name of the municipal council in Belgium).
The far right came up against the “sanitary cordon” in 2018
With 47.4% of the votes, “Forza Ninove” improved its score by more than seven points compared to the 2018 election, at the end of which Guy D’haeseleer, in the lead, came up against the “cordon health”. A broad coalition around the Flemish liberals was able to form to keep him in opposition.
Never before has the Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang (formerly Vlaams Blok), which is now the main rival of the conservative N-VA in Flanders, managed a community.
In the Flemish Regional Parliament, the VB, the leading opposition group, has 31 elected officials (including Mr. D’haeseleer), as many as the N-VA, leader of the majority coalition. The VB also won 20 parliamentary seats (out of 150) in the Federal Parliament during the legislative elections on June 9.
