Municipalities 2024: against all expectations, Vlaams Belang rises to power in two new municipalities

Vlaams Belang in Ranst: “The sanitary cordon has been broken at the local level but not at the national level”, estimates Dave Sinardet

In Brecht, Vlaams Belang concludes an agreement with a mixed list

In Brecht, in the province of Antwerp, Vlaams Belang will also be in power, against all expectations. “nu2960”, the movement launched locally by the CD&V, Open Vld and Vooruit, with independents, has in fact concluded an agreement with the Vlaams Belang list, which came third in the October elections.

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.