Elections 2024: When local and national elections meet

Local elections will take place at municipal and provincial levels in Belgium on Sunday, 13 October. In the run-up to the vote, Belga English explores the main issues to watch out for and provides a daily overview of events.

-The October 13 elections became a lot less local this Monday. The five political parties negotiating the formation of a new federal government say out loud that they will not search for compromises on difficult topics before the elections. Those complex topics are all the ones related to money, so just about everything.

-One of those five parties, the francophone liberals of MR, held a large meeting on Sunday. President Georges-Louis Bouchez, wants his people “to finish the job”. The national and regional elections of 9 June were a big success for MR, surpassing their eternal competitor, socialist PS largely. Bouchez wants to break the power of PS at the local level.

-The winner three months ago in Flanders, extreme-right Vlaams Belang, also hopes the momentum continues. They want to enter as many municipal councils as possible to “anchor” their local presence, said president Tom Van Grieken at his party meeting Sunday. In the past, extreme-right was primarily present in cities, but in recent years, their popularity has spread to rural communities.

-Who will not be anchored after 13 October, is Els Ampe, who founded her own party only some months ago. Ampe was a prominent politician of Open VLD (Flemish liberals) in Brussels, but left that party after many conflicts. She started her own party (Voor U, for you), but -as for all new and small parties- the regional and national elections were a big disappointment. ‘Voor U’ continues at the local level, but without Ampe. She invokes personal reasons for not participating in the elections.

_{#FlandersNewsService | Tom Van Grieken and fans © BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK}