Paul Van Miert passes on the mayoralty to Hannes Anaf with congratulations: “There is really only one choice” (Turnhout)

Paul Van Miert (N-VA) has lost his Turnhout mayoral sash and is taking heavy blows with his party. Within the N-VA/CD&V cartel list, the party of the former mayor still obtains three seats. CD&V managed to steal five. The winner in Turnhout turned out to be Vooruit, which may form a coalition with the cartel. Whether Van Miert will serve as alderman remains to be seen.

Van Miert congratulates his successor on the victory. “He was able to rally the left behind him,” he said. “We clearly have not been able to convince Vlaams Belang voters to come to the centre-right. Hannes ran a good campaign, they won twelve seats, we still have some left. He is the victor today.”

Van Miert has nothing to say about the new Turnhout coalition yet. “You should ask the new mayor of Turnhout that,” he laughs sportily. “But there is really only one choice. If everyone decides not to talk to Vlaams Belang, there is only one choice and then we have twenty seats together: a workable majority.”

Van Miert also does not answer the question whether there is a future for him in the council of aldermen. “I’m going to chat with Hannes about that. We sit together in the Flemish parliament and have a strong coalition there too. I am waiting for his call.”

Vooruit wins 12 of the 35 seats in Turnhout (+7) and gets the initiative. N-VA-CD&V is only third with 8 seats, after Recino Van Lommel’s Vlaams Belang with 11 (+4). N-VA-CD&V, which, like Vooruit, said in advance that it would not cooperate with Vlaams Belang, is now waiting for a phone call from Vooruit. “We are incontournable, but we will adopt a constructive attitude,” says Van Miert at the Belga press agency. “I am available to be an alderman under the new mayor, I don’t feel too good about that.”