Belgium's extreme right wing party Vlaams Belang lost a significant battle in the city of Antwerp in the local elections held last weekend. To the surprise of many people, the party - led by controversial politician Filip Dewinter - was knocked into second place by the socialist SP.A bloc of sitting mayor Patrick Janssens.
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Patrick Janssens of the SP.A saw his party win in Antwerp after he ran a 'presidential-style' campaign |
Although Vlaams Belang notched up half a percent more votes than in the last local elections, it will have no additional seats on the local council. The SP.A, however, saw its support grow by almost 16 percent, which translates into ten additional seats.
Pyhrric victory
Once the final results were known, Mr Dewinter spoke of a Pyhrric victory for the SP.A, pointing out that his main opponent had mainly taken votes from his coalition partners: "Janssens … is eating up his own children… He did not win any votes away from Vlaams Belang."
Breaking through the cordon
Vlaams Belang (or 'Flemish interest', previously known as the Vlaams Blok) emerged with 33.5 percent of the total vote in Antwerp, whereas Mr Dewinter had been hoping for at least 35 percent. This might have helped him break through what is known as the cordon sanitaire (sanitary cordon) formed by other parties to ensure that - as the name would suggest - Vlaams Belang is indeed consistently isolated rather like a disease.
When, after a series of scandals, Mr Janssens became mayor of Antwerp in 2003 he promised Mr Dewinter the 'worst of nightmares'. Speaking on Sunday, he said, "This is finally an election which will cause Dewinter sleepless nights … My message to Flanders is that it's possible to halt Vlaams Belang with a positive project for the municipality or town."
"This is a landslide victory. We're notching up the 13th victory in a row. No one may take this good result away from us."Voting rights
Meanwhile in Antwerp Filip Dewinter lashed out at the fact that foreigners now have the right to vote in local elections and how this allegedly lost him votes in some areas. He argues that most people from ethnic minorities support the socialists in particular. The socialists had hoped for an absolute majority in some districts, but this hasn't happened.
Damage limitation
In the French-speaking part of Belgium, the Parti Socialiste (PS) managed to limit its losses after coming in for severe criticism in the past year following a series of fraud scandals involving some local party members. Although the PS saw its support drop by about 10 percent, it remains the biggest party in a large number of municipalities. The far-right Front National also made gains, but far fewer than expected.
The consequences of the elections for the federal government led by Mr Verhofstadt looked likely to be limited. Another 'Black Sunday' with yet more gains for the extreme right would have increased the pressure on the Flemish parties in the government.
The possibility that this might happen had already led to speculation in the press over recent weeks about early national elections being called. The chance of this happening now appears to be small, which means Belgian voters won't have to go to the polls again until May or June next year.
RNW Internet translation (tpf)
Tags: Antwerp, Belgium, Dewinter, ethnic minorities, far-right, Filip, Flanders, Flemish, Front National, Guy, Janssens, parties, Patrick, PS, SP.A, Verhofstadt, Vlaams Belang