The leader of the Flemish nationalist party N-VA, Bart De Wever, has told the VRT that he will not enter into a coalition with the far-right party Vlaams Belang.
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Flemish nationalist leader rules out coalition with far-right
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In an interview with the soon-to-be-broadcast VRT 1 programme ‘Eerste keus’ (first choice), Mr De Wever said “If you ask me the question of whether I feal any affinity with that party and whether I could form a government with them, then the answer is a very clear no”. The interview was the first time that Mr De Wever has so unequivocally ruled out possible cooperation between N-VA and Vlaams Belang.
‘Eerste Keus’ is a programme in which first time voters get the chance to hear leading politicians answer questions on topics that interest them. The edition of the programme featuring Mr De Wever that will be broadcast soon had an audience from a secondary school in the Limburg city of Hasselt.
Mr De Wever added that “I agree with almost nothing that that party stands for. I also don’t like their style of doing things. If you ask me as a politician whether I feel any affinity with that party and whether I would form a government with them then the answer is definitely no”.
Struggle
There is a chance that N-VA and Vlaams Belang will gain a majority of the seats in the Flemish regional elections on 9 June. In recent months leading N-VA figures have often been asked if this were the case, would they form a Flemish government with Vlaams Belang.
N-VA had no clear position on this. The current Flemish prime minister Jan Jambon and the first candidate on the party’s West Flemish list for the federal parliament Jean-Marie Dedecker have hinted in newspaper interviews that an N-VA-Vlaams Belang coalition should not be ruled out. Meanwhile, the Flemish environment minister Zuhal Demir, is known to be a strong opponent of entering into a coalition with the far-right party.