Who doesn’t know Wavre and especially its Walibi, an amusement park which attracts 1.5 million Belgians and people from neighboring countries every year? Wavre is a small Brabant trading town of 34,000 inhabitants, readily mocked because of the absence of a cultural center. Wavre is also the stronghold of the liberal Charles Michel, the outgoing president of the European Council.
Or rather it was. Because at the end of last Sunday’s municipal elections, the Reform Movement (MR, formerly chaired by Charles Michel) lost Wavre. The Engagés, its allies at the federal level and in the Walloon region, won the bet. The centrist party has in fact decided to ally itself with the PS and Ecolo, in order to send the MR liberals back into opposition. The future majority will have 21 seats out of 33 on the municipal council.
The slap is all the more stinging as the MR and the Engagés obtained 12 seats each. An alliance would have given them a majority. But the centrists preferred to form a progressive “olive tree” coalition with the socialists and ecologists. And in the process making fun of Georges-Louis Bouchez, the all-powerful president of the Reform Movement who, while conquering Wallonia, did not expect to be “betrayed” where his party seemed to be playing on velvet .
Change has variable geometry
“When we learned of the results on Sunday evening, we received a large number of messages from people who told us that they were counting on us to make the change that we had promised,” explains future mayor Benoît Thoreau (Les Engagés). So that pushed us to activate contacts with socialist and green partners.” Benoît Thoreau explains that his choice was motivated by a desire for “change”, the same change that Georges-Louis Bouchez has continued to advocate in recent months.
In Nivelles, again: the list of liberal mayor Pierre Huart, which remained the most important political group in the Brabant city with 11 seats out of 29, is also relegated to the opposition by a coalition dominated by the Engagés.
The loss of Wavre and Nivelles by the liberals of the Reform Movement is quite a symbol. She reminds us that municipal policy does not necessarily align with national strategies. And, above all, it confirms the impressive rebound of the centrists who were said to be in agony two years ago, when Les Engagés was called the Humanist Democratic Center (CDH).
Since then, Les Engagés have flown from victory to victory. The French-speaking public channel RTBF, which until now spoke of their “remontada”, now speaks of a “renaissance”. In Namur, the party won 43.61% in Sunday’s local elections, an increase of 14.3%. This allows him to obtain 23 seats on the municipal council, one seat from the absolute majority. This success, like most of the resurrection of the party, must be attributed to Namur resident Maxime Prévot, the man who saved the ex-CDH from drowning. He knew how to find the right words – and poach “people” to make them vocal traps – to revitalize this political group which has its distant origins in Catholicism.
On the move in Wallonia as in Brussels
During the triple election (federal, regional, European) on June 9, the party won 20.7% of the votes in the south of the country, establishing itself as one of the rising forces, particularly in coalition with the MR, with whom it now forms a majority in the Walloon Parliament (43 seats out of 75). In Brussels, although the situation is more complex, this dynamic of progression is also felt.
Analysts attribute the success of the Engagés to their centrist positioning, which resonates well with voters looking for balanced socio-economic solutions and a peaceful relationship with public affairs. After spending some time in opposition, Les Engagés were able to capitalize on their comeback. With the result that today they are negotiating the formation of the next federal government with the liberals on the French-speaking side, the socialists, the Christian Democrats and the nationalists on the Flemish side. For the former CDH, which was also the Christian Social Party (PSC) in the previous century, this return to favor appears unexpected after years of hardship.
Negotiations for the formation of the government will resume
How far will the centrists’ desire to get back to business go? The French-speaking daily The evening focuses this Thursday on the community turn that the negotiations for the formation of the next federal government threaten to take. As they restart with a new report from trainer Bart De Wever to King Philippe, a fight is announced between the Flemings and the French speakers. The new working base of the Flemish nationalist trainer in fact provides for the end of statutory jobs in the administration, the banning of convictional signs, but also the regionalization of a series of federal structures, including scientific policy, with the key a predictable argument over sharing the spoils.
The text also provides that the federal cultural institutions established in Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts, Théâtre royal de la Monnaie, National Orchestra) will now be managed by the Flemish and French-speaking communities. Or that “federal scientific establishments located in Flanders be transferred to the Flemish region and those located in Wallonia be transferred to the Walloon region”.
In other words, the link between Flemings and French speakers could become even more loose in the future. It is not certain that the idea will please the liberals of the Reform Movement and the Engagés who, while affirming themselves for pragmatic federalism, have little desire to push Belgium a little further into the nettles.
