Some 70 students held an all-night watch party at café Den Bon Vivant in Ghent last night to follow the US presidential election together. One half of the room supported Kamala Harris, the others backed Donald J. Trump. ‘And that sometimes caused spirited discussions,’ says organiser Dylan Galle.
The idea to watch together came at the initiative of 3 different student associations: the politically neutral MUN, the liberal LVSV and the Young Nationalists of N-VA. ‘We follow political news closely and since the US presidential election is an important event, we thought we should watch it together,’ says organiser and LVSV member Dylan Galle.
Both fans of Harris and Trump
‘Political preferences among the students were divided, but that's what makes it interesting,’ says Galle. ‘You could feel the tension rising when the results came in. That also led to spirited discussions at times. But you also noticed that there was a lot of respect for each other's opinions.’
The plan was to watch until the announcement of the final results, but unfortunately that didn’t happen: ‘At one point, the pub landlord was not really eager to keep his café open any longer and fatigue eventually took its toll.’