Negotiators from the green party Groen and the socialist/liberal list ‘Voor Gent’ have reached an agreement on the formation of a new municipal coalition. If the agreement is given the thumbs up by the member of the three respective parties later on Monday the greens, socialists and liberals will control Ghent City Council for the next 6 years. Currently the city coalition also includes the Christian democrats. They will now be consigned to the opposition.
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Greens and socialist/liberal list ‘Voor Gent’ to form coalition on Ghent City Council
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Voor Gent was the big winner of the municipal elections in Ghent on 13 October. The socialist/liberal list started talks with the greens straight away. However, the talks broke down after a week and Voor Gent reached an agreement with the Flemish nationalist party N-VA.
The agreement was rejected by members of the local branch of the socialist party Vooruit and with 2 weeks already having passed since the local elections the right to try and form a coalition passed to the greens. Tensions and personal conflicts between those at the head of the green, liberal and socialist parties meant that the talks on a new municipal coalition were not going to be easy. The greens brought in their former leader Vera Dua to smooth things over and a week ago talks got under way.
The greens included the outgoing federal minister Petra De Sutter in their negotiating team, while the Voor Gent team included the city’s liberal mayor Mathias De Clercq and the soicialist figurehead Freya Van Den Bossche. The coalition agreement will be put before the members of the respective parties at meetings to be held at 7 pm on Monday.
If it is approved, Mathias De Clercq will stay on as mayor. The coalition will have a comfortable majority of 33 of the 53 seats on Ghent City Council. In addition to the mayor the liberals will have 2 aldermen. For the first 3 years of the 6-year legislature, the greens will have 4 alderman and the socialists 3. During the second half of the legislature the socialists will have 4 aldermen and the greens 3.