We are 22 days away from the local elections. Who will be the winners next October? Nobody knows the answer, but our new major RTL Info – Ipsos – Le Soir barometer has just delivered its trends in Wallonia, Brussels, and also in Flanders.
As the local elections approach, several trends are beginning to emerge. To analyze this, ULB political scientist Pascal Delwit was on RTL Info 13H.
First of all, what we observe is that the MR confirms its position in Wallonia and that the Engagés even overtake the Socialist Party, thus placing them in second position. Faced with this, a question arises: could this trend be confirmed during the next elections?
According to Pascal Delwit, this cannot be ruled out. “It is possible, because a local election has a national dimension in its results. Nevertheless, we must be careful, because a municipal election also has a very local dimension. This means that voters also pass judgement on their municipal representatives, their mayors, the heads of the lists, and therefore there are often corrective effects in relation to this national trend.”
And while Wallonia has already formed its government, this is still not the case at the federal level or in Brussels. However, the MR and the Engagés confirm their position from June.
Does this mean that the Belgians will make the same choice?Yes, this poll is what we could call a confirmation poll, that is to say, it validates the intentions of the voters of June 9. What we can observe is that, whatever the relationship to the government formation — whether the government is already in place, as in Wallonia or in the Wallonia-Brussels federation, or whether it is not in place, as in Brussels, Flanders or at the federal level — this does not change the feeling much at this stage. (…)”.
local elections politics
