The PIT list, of the liberal and former mayor Lode Hofmans, has in fact decided to seal an agreement with Vlaams Belang and the new local party Vrij Ranst after the last municipal elections. This agreement will be presented to the press at around 7:00 p.m.
On October 13, PIT came first in the poll with 25 seats, ahead of the N-VA of outgoing mayor Johan De Ryck (10 seats). The Greens of Groen, who governed with the nationalists in recent years, fell to 3 seats, as many as Vlaams Belang and the new liberal party Vrij Ranst.
Bart Goris, who made the PIT list, is expected to wear the mayoral sash for the next six years.
This is the first time that the sanitary cordon has been broken and that the Flemish far-right party has managed to gain a majority. In Ninove, Guy D’haeseleer’s Vlaams Belang obtained an absolute majority in the last municipal elections and can therefore govern alone.
The sanitary cordon is a Belgian specificity. Exclusively political in Flanders, it is both political and media on the French-speaking side. It dates back to the early 1990s. During the legislative elections of November 24, 1991, described as “Black Sunday”, the Vlaams Blok (renamed Vlaams Belang following a judicial conviction for racism) made an unprecedented electoral breakthrough, then totaling 12 seats out of 212 in the House of Representatives. In response, the five Flemish democratic parties have committed to excluding the far-right from any political coalition, regardless of the level of power.
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