Federal elections in Belgium

Originally posted by keltic
What do people see in the far right parties?.

Easy. Far-right parties blame the problems a country has on a group of outsiders. The easy appeal of the ignorant malcontent: “Your problem? Their fault!”

Sad.

Originally posted by keltic
That´s not really nice….isn´t it?. What do people see in the far right parties?. 😡

That is THE question actually

Originally posted by Geforce
BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgian voters returned Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt’s Liberal-Socialist coalition to office for another four years in a weekend election in which the far-right made a record showing.

The anti-immigration Vlaams Blok (Flemish Bloc) won the largest vote in its 25-year history on Sunday, five months after race riots rocked the port city of Antwerp.

The party — which has links to French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen — .

That´s not really nice….isn´t it?. What do people see in the far right parties?. 😡

Strange elections. It never happened that a political party has been whiped out of the parliament. It`s a sad day for Belgium, with extreme right becoming a major party now.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgian voters returned Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt’s Liberal-Socialist coalition to office for another four years in a weekend election in which the far-right made a record showing.

The anti-immigration Vlaams Blok (Flemish Bloc) won the largest vote in its 25-year history on Sunday, five months after race riots rocked the port city of Antwerp.

The party — which has links to French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen — boosted its share in parliament, but it stands no chance of entering government because all mainstream parties refuse to deal with it.

But the size of its vote highlighted ethnic and linguistic tensions fueled by high unemployment, North African immigration and concern over crime.

Early Monday, Verhofstadt tendered the resignation of his outgoing coalition to King Albert to start the process of forming a new government.

The main losers were the Greens, Verhofstadt’s junior coalition partners. They are now out of office after suffering a huge defeat in Wallonia, the country’s French-speaking south, and Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north.

Belgians increased the strength of Verhofstadt’s Liberals and their Socialist allies, giving them 97 of the 150 parliamentary seats.

With 99.43 percent of the votes counted, the Liberals have 49 seats, a gain of eight. The Socialists won 48 seats, up 13 — the party’s best performance in 15 years and the election’s biggest gain.

In recent years, Verhofstadt’s coalition has passed controversial social policies, legalizing euthanasia, marijuana and gay marriages. The government also introduced tax cuts and reined in budgetary spending.

“The government emerges stronger from these election results. There is a general feeling in the electorate that this government is doing a good job,” Verhofstadt said.

The far-right Vlaams Blok consolidated a string of electoral gains since the 1980s by winning 18 seats, a gain of three.

It was the second consecutive defeat for the Christian Democrats, who dominated Belgian politics for decades until they were ousted in 1999 elections. They lost a seat both in Flanders and Wallonia.

The Greens lost their nine seats in Flanders, a rare parliamentary election wipeout. In Wallonia, they lost seven of their 11 seats.

Voters were angry at the Greens over their campaigning against arms exports to Nepal, night flights over Brussels and tobacco advertising, which cost Belgium its Formula One motor racing grand prix.

Verhofstadt now has to balance the pro-business, privatizing tendencies of his Liberals with the social security and healthcare spending bias of the Socialists.

He also faces a major task in mending strained relations with Washington after Belgium’s opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq and its obstruction of NATO moves to boost Turkey’s defenses before the conflict.

Belgian PM claims poll victory
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has claimed victory for his governing coalition of Liberals and Socialists in the country’s closely fought general election.

Although final results are only expected to be announced later on Sunday, partial results and nationwide projections showed that the Mr Verhofstadt’s coalition won a clear majority.

“This is a fantastic result. The government emerges stronger from these election results,” Mr Verhofstadt told cheering members of his Flemish Liberal party.

Earlier, Stefaan De Clerck of the Flemish Christian Democrats – Mr Verhofstadt’s main rivals – conceded defeat.

Mr Verhofstadt is hoping to win a second term in office after four years at the head of a six-party rainbow coalition.

But there are indications that the Greens – the junior partners in the coalition – have done badly.

Early results also showed that the far-right Flemish nationalists, the Vlaams Blok, has performed strongly.

Bargaining ahead

The coalition between Mr Verhofstadt’s free-market Liberals, the Socialists and the Greens has been fractious, but it has brought in a range of reforms in a once socially conservative country – legalising gay marriages and euthanasia and decriminalising cannabis.

If people who emigrate here don’t adapt to our systems, to our laws, to our values, they should go back to where they came from
Anke Vandermeersch
Vlaams Blok candidate

Mr Verhofstadt says Belgium’s economy has performed well in comparison with other European countries, but unemployment remains high.

Correspondents say there will be weeks of post-election bargaining before a new coalition is formed.

But one party will definitely not be coming to power – none of the mainstream groups will negotiate with the Vlaams Blok.

Yet the party, which campaigns on a law-and-order and anti-immigrant platform, gained 15% of the vote in Flanders last time and opinion polls are forecasting it will do even better now.

They have enlisted former beauty queen Anke Vandermeersch as a Senate candidate, but the BBC’s Shirin Wheeler says that, despite the pretty packaging, the Vlaams Blok’s message has not changed much.

Complexities

Nine major parties contested the polls and none of them has overwhelming support.

The country is divided between the more prosperous and populous Dutch-speaking Flanders region in the north, and French-speaking Wallonia, the former industrial heartland.

Most parties are similarly split on linguistic lines, and governments must represent both linguistic groups.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/3037343.stm

Published: 2003/05/18 20:13:48 GMT

© BBC MMIII