Belgian Politics & Elections: Federal, regional & EP elections on June 9, 2024

[DavidB.]

[DavidB.]

Dries Van Langenhove announced he will resign from parliament. He was the Vlaams Belang spokesman on asylum and immigration and says the media boycott against him as a person hampered VB's potential to raise attention for the party's stance on this crucial issue. DVL's exit removes one of the main arguments for the N-VA against cooperation with VB after 2024. They still won't do it, but the obligatory ritual dance may now take a few more additional weeks.

[DavidB.]

Wouldn't have known this if it were for Flemish "quality newspapers" De Morgen and De Standaard, which have multiple articles on the Israeli political crisis with very big headlines on their homepage, but apparently none about the imminent collapse of the Walloon government. No wonder that it already feels as if these are two (or three) different countries.

[DavidB.]

Vlaams Belang are also endlessly more skillful and competent than FVD + PVV, which I suppose are the "Putin worshippers and conspiracy theorists" she refers to. To me, Van Langenhove's exit from the VB parliamentary group was the perfect epitome of this and, seen from Dutch eyes, something unbelievable. I'm not quite sure what was going on there, but seems likely to me the official story isn't true and VB most likely wanted to get rid of him to have this roadblock out of the way in anticipation of a coalition with the N-VA. Yet both VB and DVL stick to the velvet divorce story and the result is that voters move on and it's a net win for VB. In the Netherlands, you'd have seen a party split for sure, causing tons of drama and voters to run away.

[DavidB.]

Absolutely crazy, thanks for these insights into this system of network corruption.

I don't remember who said it first, but Belgium is one the few places in the world that would be improved under Sharia law.

Nah. Belgian beer is the most important redeeming feature.

[DavidB.]

If the government collapses, will a "rump government" with a minority in parliament stay on until the 2024 election in the way it happened last time, or is there a constitutional possibility for early federal elections?

[DavidB.]

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/07/07/jean-marie-dedecker-overweegt-om-de-ldd-nieuw-leven-in-te-blazen/

List Dedecker (a libertarian party) might choose to to be on the lists next election again. It's something that is into consideration and would be a threat to both the flemish liberals and flemish national conservatives (VLD and N-VA) if they decide to do so as they're quite popular, esp. in West Flanders.

What is his unique selling point? Will LDD also take VB voters?

[DavidB.]

Rousseau wasn't just "complaining about Roma people", he said the police should use batons against these "brown men" more often because "that's the only language they understand". He himself admitted that this is in the police report even though he said he did not use these words literally. He also told police officers they make "too much money". Incredible if he still manages to stay on until the federal election. Imagine what would happen if this were Tom Van Grieken.

[DavidB.]

Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD) resigned after it turned out that on August 15th 2022, Tunisia had sent Belgium an extradition request for the perpetrator of this week's terror attack in Brussels. On September 1st that year, the Ministry of Justice forwarded the request to the public prosecutor in Brussels, which... did nothing with it. Apparently, 30 similar files had been sent in that month - only this one wasn't followed up on. With dramatic consequences.

I always thought of Van Quickenborne as a bit of a joke, but the fact that he's taking the ultimate political responsibility even though he cannot interfere with the work of independent prosecutors is exemplary, and so was his extremely clear press conference, in which he also apologized to the relatives of the deceased victims. No ifs or buts, but taking responsibility - that's credible politics.

[DavidB.]

Thierry Baudet has announced that Forum for Democracy will take part in the European Parliament election not only in the Netherlands, but also in Belgium. With a 5% threshold in Belgium they won't win a seat, but they could cost VB their fourth one. FVD claim they differentiate themselves from VB by focusing on abolishment (not reform) of the EU, on COVID restrictions (not sure which ones...), on Central Bank Digital Currency, on opposing NATO and "American imperialism", and on building a network within society. They compare VB to the Dutch PVV. And they announced they will organize rallies in Antwerp, Brussels, Leuven and Luik.

I wonder whether Dries Van Langenhove could be FVD's leading candidate in Flanders.

https://twitter.com/PALNWS/status/1717879639731765507?s=20

[DavidB.]

I think those Swedes shot up would have survived if Wallonia and Flanders didn't underfund the city constantly and draw its borders in such an absurd way that ghettoisation was inevitable.

What borders do you think were drawn absurdly? The ones of the Capital Region or the arbitrary ones of the municipalities within it? I'd think it'd be mostly the latter, and I don't think that's on Wallonia and Flanders, but perhaps I'm missing something.

[DavidB.]

Rutten: "I can imagine there are many people who don't understand why I was first disappointed and didn't want to do national politics any longer, but that I'm now sitting here anyway. I can only say: that's life." LMFAO!

In every country politicians are happy to put aside their supposed convictions for a new job, but Belgian ones are uniquely shameless, transparent, and in-your-face about it.

https://twitter.com/SamvanRooy1/status/1721995403632189457?s=20

[DavidB.]

Won't respond to the absolutely disgusting and unacceptable stuff Laki posted above, but I also don't want the subsequent post to seem as if anyone can just gloss over it - I wanted to mention this explicitly.

But back to the topic at hand and more importantly: Flemish social democrat leader Conner Rousseau has resigned over his comments on Roma people. Unclear what their future looks like, as Rousseau's style had been successful in winning over voters initially.

[DavidB.]

Hello OP, please fix the font/codes of your post For Belgian politics and elections we already have this thread. Perhaps the mods can merge your post with the existing thread.

Based on previous iterations on the same theme I don't expect Chez Nous to get in, but who knows - the right-wing anti-immigration wave arrived to Spain and Portugal, at some point it will come to Wallonia too.

[DavidB.]

Very distasteful to accuse a Jewish poster of supposedly supporting some sort of Holocaust denial - and that in relation to a party of which I know literally nothing and have only commented that I don't expect them to get in. You know nothing about my family history and the Holocaust, so think before you comment. Let's also remember this is coming from someone who attacked a far-left Israeli on October 7 for supporting his country defending itself. What's it with Belgians on this forum and their problems with Jews?

Also nice job derailing the thread.

[DavidB.]

We could have a long discussion about my politics and about the differences and similarities between various right-wing populist parties, and why I support some but not others, but this thread isn't for that. I am merely taking note of the fact that your comment regarding the Holocaust is unacceptable and also has no ground in anything I said regarding Chez Nous before (literally anywhere, ever), which means it was also you causing this thread derailment - and which is why I hope mods will delete this entire string of comments and edit out the personal attack from your original comment.