Vivaldi's Second?(A Belgian Election Thread)

[Shrillland]

On the same day as the end of the European Parliamentary vote, Sunday, June 9, Belgium is going to the polls after a whirlwind five years of plagues, rampant global inflation, and the Right Tide growing in ever greater strength across Europe thanks to immigration issues, which Belgium has seen plenty of. Especially in more industrial Flanders, where the Right Wing and Flemish Separatist Vlaams Belang is currently poised to take the lead in the Chamber of Representatives with a 27-seat average, though that won't be enough to form a government(you need 76 for that). Right now, Belgium has a Vivaldi Government, a new term because why should Germany get to have all the nicknames for themselves? It's called that because there are four distinct ideologies, thus "Four Seasons," among the seven parties within it led by longtime Open VLD stalwart Alexander De Croo. It's been a while to form, but COVID did speed up the process from it's usual 16 months...so don't expect me to predict who'll form a new government.

As it is, the Vivaldi Parties(Open VLD/MR, Groen/Ecolo[I'll explain in a minute], PS/Vooruit, and cd&v) are hanging just around the cusp of majority territory, but that's contingent on the Flemish interest groups, both VB and N-VA, continuing to go up in the polls. Traditionally, VB has been an untouchable party like so many other far right parties, but N-VA leader Bart de Wever has suggested a possible VB-N-VA Coalition for the regional government in Flanders after June, even as other parties, Flemish, Walloon, and German alike, have all said that N-VA would become too radioactive to work with on the federal level in such a situation. Amongst all this, the Far Left PTB-PVDA-PAB is now also ascendant, poised to reach as many as 20 seats in the latest polls. All of this combined means a traditional Belgian election AKA a mess.

Here's how it'll all go down. The Chamber of Representatives has 150 seats(87 in Flanders, 47 in Wallonia[including the Deutschophone community), and 16 in Brussels who can choose either group, all multi-member) chosen by D'Hondt PR with a 5% threshold. There are lots of parties, some unique to a region, most with a counterpart in the other region or linguistic community. Where that happens, they'll appear together in the poll. PTB-PVDA is the only truly national party in Belgium and will stand alone. Next, there's the Senate with 60 members indirectly elected, 50 from the regional and communal Parliaments(which we'll get to) and 10 Federal Senators chosen based on how the election goes.

Next, the Regional and Communal Parliaments. First, there's the Flemish Parliament, which is both Regional and Communal with 124 members, six of which come from Brussels. There's also the Walloon Parliament with 75 members, the Francophone Communal Parliament with 94 members(all the Walloon regional MPs plus 19 Brussels MPs and the Brussels Parliament with 89 members divided according to the census as to linguistics(currently, that means 72 Francophones and 17 Nederphones). There's also the German Communal Parliament with 25 members. All of these are chosen via D'Hondt PR with a 5% threshold just like the Federal level.

So, let's look at the parties!

Vlaams Belang(Flemish Interest or VB) led by Tom Van Grieken(will be running for the Flemish Parliament): Far Right, Flemish Nationalist, Flemish Separatist, Right Populist

Socialist Party(PS) led by Paul Magnette: Centre-left to Left, Social Democratic
OR
Vooruit(Onward) led by Melissa Depraetere: Centre-left, Social Democratic

New Flemish Alliance(N-VA) led by Bart de Wever: Centre-right to Right, Conservative, Flemish Autonomy

Reformist Movement(MR) led by Georges-Louis Bouchez: Centre-right, Conservative Liberal
OR
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats(Open VLD) led by Senator Tom Ongena and including current PM Alexander De Croo: Centre-right, Conservative Liberal
OR
Perspectives. Freedom. Progress.(PFF) led by Kattrin Jadina and working within yet apart from MR: Centre-right, Liberal, German-speaking Interests, Social Liberal

Workers Party of Belgium(PTB-PVDA-PAB) led by Raoul Hedebouw: Far Left, Socialist, Marxist

Christian Democratic and Flemish(cd&v) led by Sammy Mahdi: Centre to Centre-right, Christian Democratic
OR
Les Engages "The Committed Ones"(LE) led by Maxime Prevot: Centre, Social Liberal
OR
Christian Social Party(CSP) ;ed by Jerome Franssen: Centre to Centre-right, Christian Democratic

Ecolo led by Rajae Maouane and Jean-Marc Nollet: Centre-left, Green Policy
OR
Groen led by Nadia Naji and Jeremie Vaneeckhout: Centre-left, Green Policy, Pacifist, Progressive

Democratic, Federalist, Independent(DéFI) led byFrancois De Smet: Centre to Centre-right, Regionalist(Brussels Francophones), Social Liberal, Liberal

Pick your fish, NSG, I'm going with my customary Green Parties myself.

[Merien]

Knew a girl from there. Loved her once left her twice (a funny story).

My step grandfather lived in Belgium, but he left to go to America.

I don't know enough, but definitely not one of those anti Islam people.

[Shrillland]

VRT, the Flemish Broadcaster, has a section all about the Flemish parties for you to view

The avergae age of Flemish candidates is the highest its ever been, and there are much fewer women high up on party lists than before as well

RTBF, meanwhile, has an elections test to see who you're with! We all love those, don't we?

It's only for the Walloon parties, but you'll get the idea, Here's one for the Flemish parties.

I got 75% for PS, 72% for Ecolo, and 67% for PTB-PVDA-PAB as my top three on the Walloon list. On the Flemish list, I got 69% for Groen, 65% for Vooruit, and 63% for Open VLD with PTB-PVDA-PAB in fourth place at 60%.

[Bienenhalde]

For the Walloon parties, I got 82% Les Engages, 56% Ecolo, and 51% Parti Socialiste.

[Quaxoglia]

It's a very difficult decision for me.

Personally: I'm quite center to center-right. But I'm not fond of the Open VLD. I support many N-VA policies (especially stikstof, national parks, migration and education), I don't want to go back to the unitary state, I feel Flemish and Belgian. I don't want the country to separate to be honest. I don't know what to vote...

[Shrillland]

It's a very difficult decision for me.

Personally: I'm quite center to center-right. But I'm not fond of the Open VLD. I support many N-VA policies (especially stikstof, national parks, migration and education), I don't want to go back to the unitary state, I feel Flemish and Belgian. I don't want the country to separate to be honest. I don't know what to vote...

cd&v, perhaps?

[Quaxoglia]

It's a very difficult decision for me.

Personally: I'm quite center to center-right. But I'm not fond of the Open VLD. I support many N-VA policies (especially stikstof, national parks, migration and education), I don't want to go back to the unitary state, I feel Flemish and Belgian. I don't want the country to separate to be honest. I don't know what to vote...

cd&v, perhaps?

No, absolutely not. Especially on a local level I know their kind of politics... Lot of, "things" happen in places where they have the absolute majority, like in my community. And I don't support their stikstof-stance.

[Shrillland]

cd&v, perhaps?

No, absolutely not. Especially on a local level I know their kind of politics... Lot of, "things" happen in places where they have the absolute majority, like in my community. And I don't support their stikstof-stance.

Ah, I can understand. I must admit, I'm not a fan of excessive stikstof usage myself(yes, I had to look it up, but I do know what you mean)but coming from a rural area where farmers need good yields, I get why they want to keep using it.

PS: To all of you looking in, stikstof means nitrogen fertilisers for farms.