The President of Antwerp

There seems to be a lot of confusion about which party actually won or lost local and provincial council elections in Flanders (that’s the Northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium).

The winners include the Christian-democrat/nationalist CD&V/N-VA, the socialist Sp.a and the right-wing VB. The losers include the liberal VLD and again the right-wing VB.

Well, nobody ever said that politics in Belgium was easy to grasp :-)

The foreign press expected a victory of the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) and so that’s what they reported. The truth is a bit more complex. Let’s put crooked things straight:

• CD&V/N-VA is a winner, because it’s the largest party in Flanders, but it lost 6 seats in the provincial councils
  
• Mayor of Antwerp Patrick Janssens is a clear winner because he beat Filip Dewinter on preference votes and his Sp.a-Spirit became the largest party in the Antwerp city council
  
• VB won because the number of its seats in local councils increased from 439 to around 800. But that’s mainly because it participated in many local elections for the first time. In Antwerp it only gained 0.5%, Dewinter was trashed by Janssens and nowhere did the party clinch an absolute majority. That’s a win-loose situation. So no 13th election victory in a row.
  

And Miss Marie-Rose (Morel) has to pass the next couple of winters without the mayor’s scarf in Schoten.

Finally, Antwerp has its President!