In 2018, they were one step away from victory and today they are redoing their calculations: with just under 1,000 votes obtained from their opponents, they would achieve their goals. Supporters of Guy D’haeseleer, deputy of the far-right xenophobic and separatist party Vlaams Belang (VB), dream of a victory in Ninove, a city of 40,000 inhabitants, in the province of East Flanders. On the night of the municipal elections on Sunday, October 13, they aim to see their favorite become “bourgmestre” (mayor). It would be a novelty in the country since 1945 and would symbolically mark the end of the cordon sanitaire, a practice that, since the creation of Vlaams Belang – which was then called Vlaams Blok – in 1979, has allowed the gap to be kept at bay at all levels of can.
“You shouldn’t write that we are Nazis. We simply discovered that there are now too many foreigners living here and renting social housing. “Guy is a good guy who understands and helps us.”says Jos, a retiree (who did not want to give his name), as he leaves the café De Posthoorn, renamed “Vlaams Huis” – Flemish house –, a bistro in Ninove decorated with nationalist flags, lions with all their claws out and posters of VB.
In 2018, D’haeseleer preferred the VB label to that of “Forza Ninove”, which would likely bring him the votes of a more moderate electorate. A successful bet: he obtained fifteen seats out of the thirty-three on the municipal council. Opposite him, the liberal mayor Tania De Jonge brought together the socialist, environmentalist and Christian democratic parties to achieve a narrow majority, supported by an independent candidate who became the scapegoat of the Vlaams Huis. During the regional elections on June 9, D’haeseleer obtained 39.2% of the votes in his city. Jos and his friends are convinced that things will be even better on Sunday, when the population will have to decide on purely local issues.
Fight against “Frenchization”
In Ninove, located 40 kilometers from Brussels, unemployment and crime rates are below the average for the Flemish region. The council prides itself on having increased the police force and invested heavily in surveillance cameras, while the hard core of a gang of young thugs has apparently been dismantled. “The problem, for a good number of residents, is the “visible” nature of immigration”explains a city hall employee, who requested anonymity “given the political context”.
Visible? “In about twenty years, many Africans have left Brussels and Ghent, which had become too expensive, to come and settle here”, explains our interlocutor. Translation of Jos and his wife, who joined him: “They haven’t done anything to us, but they don’t participate in anything, they consume 80% of social assistance and, furthermore, they only speak French. » The fight against the “Frenchization” of the region, following the arrival of foreigners who now represent a fifth of the local population, is another theme of the campaign. If you come to the town hall, those who do not know Dutch are already invited to be accompanied by an interpreter. Or rely on the good will of a disobedient official.
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