Yesterday I made two posts regarding the Belgian municipality elections. They mainly focussed on Antwerp, my city, and the result that we got there (20.2% of the votes).
I felt a little disappointed yesterday because of weeks of talks of possibly becoming the biggest party but after a good night’s sleep I feel really proud of managing such a grow and becoming the second largest party.
As a true Antwerpenaar I also need to remind myself of other places in Belgium existing (Belgians will understand this joke) and today the rest of the results are known. I want to highlight some of the other noteworthy results we managed to get.
In Antwerp we also have, as the only municipality in Belgium, elections in our city’s district. Last elections we manage to get a really good position in Borgerhout and we even got to govern the past few years together with the socdems. As a reward for the things we achieved, we are now the BIGGEST party in the district. In the district of Hoboken we also managed to become the second biggest party.
In Brussels and its’ municipalities we also get really good scores. We keep growing in Molenbeek, Jette, Saint-Gilles, Forest, Anderlecht, Ixelles, Brussels City and Schaarbeek. In Molenbeek, Saint-Gilles and Forest we even managed to get over 20% of the votes. We are able to govern there if other parties want to.
In Wallonia we also keep growing in the big cities of Namur, Charleroi and Liège. In the cities of Herstal and Seraing we even manage to get 30% and 26% of the votes. In places like Saint-Nicolas and La Louvière we also get 20% and 19,2%.
In the city of Moeskroen we got over 20% of the votes, which is noteworthy not only because of the score, but also because it was the first time ever competing in the municipalities there.
All in all we keep growing at a really great pace. We have chances to govern in several municipalities and district. My opinions on electoral politics aside we can be really proud of the results we got. It will give us chances to keep growing and the show what we are capable of.
What is the relationship between your party and traditional or institutional “left” in your country? Do you form alliances, any tactics?
Well the relationships are a bit tricky.
On a Flanders and federal level the socdems and the greens are pretty much slandering us, saying they will never work with us and that we are an extremist party. On a local, municipal level though we are working together with them in at least two municipalities, and with success. So the local chapters are a bit more reasonable.
On a Brussels level their equivalents are more reasonable too and I expect them to invite us to work together, so we will probably govern some Brussels municipalities.
On a Walloon level the same basically. I think it’s because Brussels and Wallonia are much more left leaning. The Flanders socdems are parading behind the neolibs. Their chairman got involved in a scandal earlier this year when he drunkenly asked policemen to beat Roma people in his hometown. Very nice person, not extremist at all.
So there are options, especially locally. But I won’t go as far as to say we have a good relationship. We are open to govern together with them if possible but most of the time that’s a one way street and there is no favor returned.
Still, as we keep growing it will be hard for them to ignore us. Especially since the only options they’ll have left will be neolibs and that will eventually cost them their voters I guess.
One more thing about my city is that the neolibs NVA will have to govern with the socdems of Vooruit.
Any leftist tendencies the socdems have, if any, will probably get thrown out of the window again as they have done for the past few years. I hope it will present opportunities for our party when it comes to convincing actual leftists from their party.
Proud of you all. Thank you for what you do. Keep fighting the good fight, that’s great progress!
