The president of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA), Bart De Wever, met on Tuesday with Vlaams Belang in a second round of consultations to prepare the programme of a potential ruling majority for Flanders following May’s elections.
Only the Belgian labour party, PTB, has been excluded from the second round. Talks with the Christen Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V) and Open Vld parties were also scheduled for Tuesday, while Groen could be received by De Wever at another date.
The Vlaams Belang delegation, comprising President Tom Van Grieken, Parliamentarian Barbara Pas and the head of the party’s Limburg list, Chris Janssens, said later that the meeting was held “in confidence”.
"This morning’s discussion was an exchange of ideas,” commented Janssens, declining to give further details on the talks. He also did not know whether Tuesday’s second meeting would be followed by a third. De Wever “first wants to see the other parties over the next few days,” he explained.
N-VA and Vlaams Belang do not have enough representatives in the Flemish parliament to form a majority government. At the same time, the other Flemish parties have shown little inclination to break the cordon sanitaire placed around the extreme right, refusing systematically to govern with Vlaams Belang.
The Brussels Times
