Fifth Column: More liberal than the liberals
N-VA increases popularity with help of new recruits
Anja Otte’s take on the week in politics
First Flemish MP Annick De Ridder (pictured) left for N-VA. De Ridder had fallen out with her party some time ago. She became known when as a young woman she challenged then prime minister Guy Verhofstadt at a party congress on the issue of the migrant vote. Soon after, her political rise began... and stopped.
In the Flemish Parliament she never lived up to her party’s high expectations. Eventually, she quit Antwerp city council to work for the logistics company Katoen Natie and its colourful boss, Fernand Huts, also a former liberal. Her political career seemed over until it was revived by N-VA, the party De Ridder’s political friends such as Antwerp alderman Ludo Van Campenhout had joined before.
Another liberal to join N-VA ranks was Lorin Parys. Like De Ridder, Parys had been an up-and-coming for Open VLD for some time. The young attorney got noticed as a spokesperson for Flemish economy minister Patricia Ceysens. He also headed Flanders DC, the organisation for business creativity he co-founded.
His political career was marred by his next job, with Uplace, the “lifestyle company” that wants to build a gigantic shopping experience centre in Machelen. The project has been controversial from the start and is especially unpopular in Parys’ home town of Leuven. Because of this, Parys decided not to take part in the local elections, his political ambitions nipped in the bud.
Recruiting De Ridder and Parys, neither of them very popular, is a brilliant move for N-VA. Both are outspoken liberals, claiming to be disappointed by their former party’s track record in the Di Rupo government. Both also have close ties to big business, giving N-VA more credibility there.
N-VA also welcomed Johan Van Overtveldt, editor-in-chief at the business weekly Trends. Van Overtveldt, an admirer of the monetarist Chicago School, no longer wants to be an observer, becoming a party activist instead.
With these newcomers, N-VA has managed to become almost more liberal than the liberals. It comes as no surprise, then, that in a recent poll more than 50% of entrepreneurs called N-VA their party of preference.
