With nearly all votes counted in the seaside resort, socialist Vooruit Plus of former secretary of state John Crombez is well in the lead in Ostend. Trots op Oostende (Proud of Ostend), the liberal, green, Christian democrat list of mayor Bart Tommelein takes no more than 19 per cent of the votes. Flemish nationalist N-VA and far-right Vlaams Belang also progress, but gains are modest.
Socialist Vooruit triumphs in Ostend, drubbing for liberal mayor Bart Tommelein
Colin Clapson
Published:
The predicted trouncing of mayor Tommelein and the success of socialist Vooruit is a reality. ‘Vooruit will be able to break Tommelein’s coalition with Flemish nationalist N-VA,’ responds Vanessa Vens, number 2 on the Vooruit Plus list of mayoral candidate John Crombez. Vooruit Plus polls 38 per cent, a hefty gain of some 16 per cent.
Trots op Oostende, the list grouping liberal Open VLD, ecologist Groen and Christian democrat CD&V, remains stuck on 19 per cent. That is a halving of the number of votes that Open VLD, Groen and CD&V achieved 6 years ago.
The Flemish nationalists of N-VA make small gains of about 2 per cent, taking 19 per cent of the vote. Far right Vlaams Belang is the city’s 4th party with 16 per cent (+3 per cent).
The other parties remain under 5 per cent.