He reached the source but in the end Christos Doulkeridis did not drink water (again), since, as reported by the Belgian media, a socialist, liberal and centrist coalition reached a majority agreement early on Monday, which removes the Greek-born winner of the Environmentalists from the mayor’s office ( Ecolo).
The outgoing mayor, Christos Doulkeridis, recorded a great victory with his list finishing in first place, but this was not enough as it appeared.
With percentage 28,4% the Ecolo were first with a small lead over the centre-right Mouvement Réformateur received 27,7%. «It’s an outcome we hoped for, but didn’t fully envision. The campaign was very tough. We were the target of all the criticism and there was the disastrous election in June. To remain the first party in this context, where environmental issues were much lower than in 2018, is a huge source of pride“, said Christos Doulkeridis to the Belgian news agency on Sunday evening.
Concern about the prevalence of the extreme right in Flanders
On the opposite bank, the absolute predominance (47.45%) of the far-right list Forza Ninove in the Ninove region of 40,000 inhabitants in West Flanders is a cause for concern. It is the satellite of the far-right party Vlaams Belang and the first far-right mayorship in Belgium after the Second World War.
«Vlaams Belang, making progress in many places, did not make the very big progress it had hoped for, but it did get its first mayor thanks to an absolute majority in Nineveh» points out the Belgian newspaper Le Soir.
It also underlines that voters did not “copy” their vote of the 9thher Junedate held in addition to the European and Belgian government elections. In particular, the Socialist Party managed to keep its ten bastions in Brussels and ten Walloon cities, overturning predictions of a defeat similar to that of 9her June.
Response from Brussels
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