Belgium goes to the polls to elect new municipal and provincial councils on 13 October. Once again, the far right Vlaams Belang party is fielding candidates in Flanders and Brussels. The party will be hoping to pick up more seats but it’s greatest wish is to be allowed to join city cabinets across northern Belgium.
Since the 90s of the previous century the far right has been ostracized from government and that includes local government. Other parties pledged not to co-operate with the far right Vlaams Blok and its successor Vlaams Belang and to apply what is termed the 'cordon sanitaire'. The arrangement has effectively excluded the Vlaams Belang from power at all levels for over three decades.
Today the party is eager to bust the cordon and is asking whether it is really necessary to exclude it from decisions over investments in sports halls and libraries.
The party hopes that this time round it will not again be sidelined after the local elections, but that seems a hope that is unlikely to be fulfilled. Chris Janssens, Vlaams Belang group leader in the Flemish Parliament, struggles to comprehend the strategy pursued by Flemish nationalist leader Bart De Wever. ‘Why does the N-VA not talk to Vlaams Belang?’, he asks.
Janssens claims that by excluding Vlaams Belang from the Flemish government formation talks, the N-VA has been forced to make too many concessions to its own programme. ‘No headscarf ban, the number of MFPs will not be reduced, and provincial government will remain in place. Mr De Wever (N-VA) has caved in to Flemish Christian democrat CD&V and Flemish socialist Vooruit,’ is his judgement.
Vlaams Belang now hopes to play a significant role after the municipal elections on 13 October and is calling on N-VA to ‘listen to its supporters this time’. ‘Do we really need a cordon sanitaire at the local level, where decisions are about investments in a sports hall or a library or about how people can live safely in their own neighbourhood?’