In short: Team Fouad Ahidar breaks through, socialist PS maintains its position, Greens lose, and MR's liberal ‘blue wave’ fails to materialise
Now that almost all votes have been counted, some clear trends are emerging in the 19 Brussels municipalities: the blue wave that liberal MR had hoped for has failed to emerge and forecast losses for the socialists remain limited. Everywhere the Greens receive blows. Team Fouad Ahidar, a party that shows understanding for concerns of immigrant communities and Communist PTB-PVDA gain council seats too. Brussels party DéFI is in the doldrums.
For Brussels voters, who do still have to vote, the day started with some technical problems, but by noon voting went ahead almost everywhere. After a relatively smooth ballot, the contours of the new Brussels municipal councils are gradually becoming clear.
In the 2018 municipal elections, PS and Ecolo-Groen emerged as winners, but both parties were expected to be firmly punished today. The controversial Good Move mobility plan has dominated Brussels politics for some time now. Here and there the plan has been well received, but in many places, it remains a divisive issue.
Ongoing (drug) violence has elevated security to a major election issue. So, it was written in the stars that voters would shuffle the cards today.
Liberal MR hoped to repeat the success of June in the councils. The 'blue wave’, as described by MR list leader (and possible future Brussels prime minister) David Leisterh failed to materialise.
Green takes hits, PS limits damage
Meanwhile, it looks like socialist PS has managed to limit the damage.
Especially in the City of Brussels, where mayor Philippe Close (PS) remains firmly in the saddle. In 2018, Close polled 8,500 preferential votes, this year his tally rose to 9,042. His list PS-Vooruit narrowly remains the largest party with 28.1 percent, liberal MR+ follows with 21.2 percentage points.
In some other municipalities, PS does receive (limited) blows.
The Greens cannot repeat their electoral successes of 6 years ago either. Over the past six years, they were able to join coalitions in 14 of the 19 Brussels municipalities, and in 3 municipalities (Vorst, Elsene and Watermaal-Bosvoorde) Ecolo even got the mayoral sash. Today, they got beaten: in most municipalities, the Greens sustained losses of some 5 percent. Only in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek were gains recorded.
Blue wave
The liberal ‘blue wave’ remains limited. The party can show positive results almost everywhere, but there is no question of a landslide victory.
Mr Leisterh will in all likelihood be allowed to wear the mayoral sash in Watermaal-Bosvoorde. His list with GM and the centrist Les Engagés, polled 40 percent of the vote.
Communist PTB-PVDA gained a foothold in some municipalities: in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, the party even rocketed to second place. With 22.2 percent, the party is a sigh off socialist PS-VOORUIT.
Team Fouad breaks through
And then there is former Flemish socialist Fouad Ahidar. In the regional elections, he won 3 seats in the Brussels parliament with his breakaway party. Today he continues his triumphal march.
With his Team Fouad Ahidar, he stood in 7 Brussels municipalities. Mr Ahidar had expressed his hope of winning a total of some 30 seats in Brussels. He set his sights on the mayoralty in Jette, his hometown, but there he is now stranded in 4th place. Consolation prize: with not all votes counted yet, it does look like those 30 seats are his.
DéFI dangles at the bottom
Big loser of the day is DéFI. In almost every municipality, the party eyes a negative result. In Schaarbeek the party is completely wiped off the map. There, mayor Bernard Clerfayt sees his party tumble back some 20 percentage points.
Emir Kir (ex-socialist PS) remains mayor in Sint-Joost-Ten-Node, where he scored an absolute majority with his Mayor's List.
Benoît Cerexhe of Les Engagés is also sure of the mayoral sash. His party won an extra 30 percent in Sint-Pieters-Woluwe-Saint, good for an absolute majority. Les Engagés has done relatively well, with positive figures in almost all Brussels municipalities.
It is also clear that the composition of these new municipal councils will play a significant role at the negotiating table for the Brussels government, after earlier efforts to forge ahead all failed prior to the poll.