The Antwerp municipality has more than 30,000 inhabitants, and does not get much attention except for its village of Sint-Job-in-‘t-Goor, mentioned almost daily in the traffic news during rush hours.
The winning list from the October elections was “nu2960”, with 15 seats out of 31. This new list bringing together Christian Democrats, Socialists and Liberals quickly turned towards the second local force, the N-VA (10 seats), to try to form a coalition. This would have partially extended the current alliance between the N-VA of outgoing mayor Sven Deckers and the CD&V.
A few weeks later, however, it was a failure: neither the winner’s two weeks of right of initiative, nor those of the local N-VA allowed the two parties to find common ground. The fault of the N-VA, which put forward excessive demands, according to “nu2960”. It was Vlaams Belang, which came third (and last list) with six seats, which therefore inherited the right of initiative and finally unblocked the situation, allowing “Nu2960” and the VB to announce an agreement and a new team, with CD&V Frans Van Looveren as mayor.
Izegem, the fourth wheel of the far right
In Izegem, Vlaams Belang formed a coalition with the local party STIP+. Both parties confirmed this on Tuesday. The two parties had previously reached an agreement, but STIP+ abandoned the coalition after some party members received threats. Vlaams Belang had the right of initiative until Tuesday/today and managed to form a coalition with STIP +.
The ball is in Izegem’s court. The previously proposed coalition between Vlaams Belang and STIP + will finally take place. It was canceled by STIP + because several of its members had received threats because of their collaboration with Vlaams Belang. According to the head of the STIP + list, Kurt Grymonprez, calm has returned, which makes a coalition with Vlaams Belang possible.
“It is completely unacceptable for members of our party or any other party to be bombarded with all kinds of messages,” Mr. Grymonprez said. “We should never accept such a thing in a democracy. It is important to sound the alarm at such a time. The return to peace took time, but we got through it.
With an entirely new College of Aldermen, the new executive team wants to achieve the promised innovations. “So we are asking everyone to give us time to complete this project,” Mr. Grymonprez said.
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