Fifth column: Cordoned off
With the far-right Vlaams Belang seeing a rise in popularity, politicians from the Flemish nationalist party N-VA consider their next steps
To talk or not to talk
Refresher: Belgium’s cordon sanitaire is the agreement by the rest of the country’s political parties to exclude the far-right Vlaams Belang from all coalitions and councils. The 1989 decision was based on the party’s platform, which was considered fundamentally racist, but the move was also later seen as strategic.
Other parties hoped to pick up votes not cast for Vlaams Belang. In fact, the opposite happened: Vlaams Belang began to attract protest votes. The cordon has always been a topic of debate. Was it the right and democratic thing to do? And did it work?
In recent years, the debate has died down, as Vlaams Belang has dwindled into irrelevance, but the discussions were rekindled recently, as N-VA politician Theo Francken stated that “in a virtual reality” he could see his party co-operating with Vlaams Belang. In a recent poll, a majority of N-VA voters called the cordon “undemocratic”.
The N-VA did not exist when the cordon was signed and has not signed on to it since. It has always considered it responsible for Vlaams Belang’s success.
Will the cordon survive after the 2018 local elections? Most believe it will. If N-VA had wanted to, it could have entered municipal coalitions with Vlaams Belang in 2012, as both parties had a majority between them in several towns, including Antwerp. Most likely, it will choose not do so in 2018 as well.
N-VA probably does not want to risk being vilified shortly before the federal and regional elections one year later. It might even end up in a cordon itself. The French-speaking liberals, prime minister Charles Michel’s party, have already stated that they will not co-operate with anyone willing to engage with Vlaams Belang.
In any case, Vlaams Belang has not done much to clean up its act. It recently reprimanded party leader Filip Dewinter and other members who visited the fascist and violent Golden Dawn in Greece. Dewinter, Vlaams Belang’s most popular politician, will probably top its Antwerp list again.
N-VA party president Bart De Wever’s personality stands in the way of a coalition with Vlaams Belang, too. He prides himself on being the man who halted the rise of Vlaams Belang by creating a party its previous voters could turn to. He hardly wants to be seen as the man who brought Vlaams Belang to power.
Photo courtesy Vlaams Belang/Facebook
