It would be the “coalition of shame”, according to Georges-Louis Bouchez, the president of the Reform Movement (MR). The French-speaking liberal thus designates the agreement that the socialists and ecologists have just made with the communists of the Belgian Labor Party (PTB) in Mons, the capital of the province of Hainaut. A first in Wallonia.
During the municipal elections of October 13, the list of outgoing mayor Nicolas Martin resisted the push of the liberals who had sworn to take this socialist bastion. But the PS had lost its absolute majority in the battle, which forced it to find one or more coalition partners. He then turned to the Engagés (centrists). Without success. He therefore decided to continue the adventure with Ecolo, his partner in the previous majority, and surprisingly towards the PTB. The new alliance totals 28 seats, including 22 for the PS, 4 for the PTB and 2 for Ecolo. Above all, it marks the entry of the PTB into the municipal council of a Walloon municipality.
The Communist Party thus fulfills the promise made to its activists to take power where it is able to exercise it. He has already tried the experiment under the PvdA label in Zelzate, in Flanders, during the previous legislature. Some media considered it conclusive.
“It is above all a local and municipal agreement to manage a city”
But Mons is a completely different story. This town of 100,000 inhabitants has always been a stronghold of the PS. The former federal Prime Minister, former Walloon Minister-President and current MEP Elio Di Rupo was its leading figure for a long time, before handing over the mayorship to Nicolas Martin. The latter will go down in history as the Walloon who brought the communists to power, even if their weight in the new majority is relative.
The liberal Georges-Louis Bouchez denounces the new alliance, speaking of “absolute madness”. For Nicolas Martin, on the contrary, “the PTB showed itself to be moderate and constructive during the discussions”. The socialist wants to be reassuring: “We have finally found an agreement which is entirely satisfactory for all parties and especially for the city and its inhabitants (…) This is a first in French-speaking Belgium, but above all it is about of a local and municipal agreement to manage a town, which has local skills, such as road management, commercial development and improving the living environment in the villages. We must therefore concentrate on this local level.”
The PTB, for its part, has watered its wine by accepting a program a priori in contradiction with its values, in particular because it supports the development of a strong economic sector based on private initiative. “That’s why I said it in a somewhat provocative way, because some political commentators or media exaggerate by saying that the more radical left would take power here. But this is done everywhere in Europe,” points out Mayor Nicolas Martin.
The mayor of Mons crosses a major taboo
However, what passes for a simple political agreement among the Mons majority serves as a break in the cordon santé for its opponents. In the past, the liberal Georges-Louis Bouchez has frequently spoken out against the idea that the PTB could be considered a political group among others. To hear him say, this extreme left – which has never denied its connection with Maoism and Marxism-Leninism, responsible for tens of millions of deaths – should be banned from the strata of power in the same way as the extreme right.
According to the French-speaking daily The eveningthis analysis should be taken with a pinch of salt. “Nothing prevents parties in Belgium from allying with the far left. The Charter for Francophone Democracy, signed in the wake of the cordon santé in the north of the country, aimed to avoid being contaminated by anti-democratic ideologies and not to ally with the far right. The PTB, an extremist, communist, but non-racist party, was therefore not concerned.” However, “if he does not break any cordon, the mayor of Mons crosses a major taboo, which could accelerate the move to action in other municipalities: Molenbeek, Forest or Schaerbeek. (…) The coming months will tell if Nicolas Martin was burned by the risk taken today.”
The president of the PS Paul Magnette, for his part, tries to shift the blame onto the opponent. “It is as much the attitude of the MR and the Engagés as the result of the ballot boxes which led to this situation”, explains the socialist in the columns of the French-speaking newspaper La Libre Belgique. He puts things into perspective: “This alliance in Mons is an experiment.” “Experiment” which paradoxically gives substance to this “left front” that Carolo described before the elections as a “losing machine”.
The rise to power of the communists in Mons responds to that of the extreme right in several Flemish cities. In Ninove, Vlaams Belang now has an absolute majority. He has just joined the municipal councils of Ranst and Izegem. Never seen before. The “traditional” lists which have formed an alliance with the extreme right in these two municipalities have not broken the cordon santé if we refer to past agreements, but it is clear that they contribute to the enterprise of demonization launched in recent years by Vlaams Belang.
“Chinese tanks are not going to land on the Grand-Place in Mons”
Beyond its populist posture, will the far left be a reliable and competent partner? On the contrary, will it dynamite local democracy from within? To what extent did the aggressive campaign led in Mons during the municipal elections by the liberal Georges-Louis Bouchez not force the socialists to ally themselves with the communists? To cross the “red line”… The future will tell.
In the meantime, local PTB representatives swear that they will do the job conscientiously. “There are a lot of expectations for us, we are aware that we will be observed, especially in the first weeks, but then we will find our working rhythm,” promises Céline De Bruyn, the future Alderwoman of Youth, Early Childhood, Equal Opportunities and Housing. The communist says she is aware of the budgetary difficulties and the management realities of a city like Mons, in the absence of any “miracle solution”.
As for Mayor Nicolas Martin, he swears that “our program is not a Bolshevik program.” “Chinese tanks are not going to land on the Grand-Place in Mons,” he quips.
