Four weeks after the municipal elections, it is now Vlaams Belang’s turn to try and form a coalition in Izegem, West Flanders, following the failure of the Nieuw-Vlaams Alliantie (N-VA) to do so.
Efforts by the Flemish nationalists to cobble together a coalition over the past two weeks have proved fruitless, so the initiative has passed on to the extreme-right Flemish nationalist party.
With 17.4% of the vote at the October elections, Vlaams Belang (VB) is the third-largest party in the city.
The N-VA, which is the second largest party, with 25.3% of the vote in October, has expressed disappointment at the latest development, stating in a press release on Monday evening that the STip+ alliance had definitively closed the door on forming a majority with it.
“They just want to push ahead with their plan to govern with Vlaams Belang,” current Mayor Bert Maertens (N-VA) charged.
This was strongly denied by STip+, an alliance comprising the Stedelijk Izegems Project (Stip – Urban Izegem Project), the liberal Open Vld and independents that emerged from the October election as the largest group in the city with 32.7% of the votes. “We remain constructive and will continue to wait calmly,” a STip+ representative said.
Starting on Wednesday, it will be up to Sam Weyts from Vlaams Belang to attempt to form a coalition.
Shortly after the elections, STip+, as the largest party, had announced that it would form a majority with VB, but those plans were later scrapped.
The extreme right party now has two weeks to form a coalition.
Discussions between VB and STip+ are scheduled for Thursday, but according to Kurt Grymonprez, head of the STip+ list, nothing is cast in stone.
‘We shall sit around the table with Vlaams Belang again on Thursday, but we may equally well make arrangements with other parties during the secret ballot," Grymonprez is quoted as saying by Het Laatste Nieuws (HLN) newspaper.
