Flanders Provinces The provincial elections are the only 2006 elections that allow for a national comparison, since in municipal elections not all parties run in all municipalities.
Municipalities Most important conclusions are that
Vlaams Belang achieves status quo in large cities as Antwerp,
Brussels and
Ghent but advances strongly in the countryside. The
CD&V-
N-VA gains nearly everywhere,
VLD and
Groen! lose nearly everywhere. The VLD was able to consolidate where they put forth nationally known candidates, like
Guy Verhofstadt in Ghent and
Vincent Van Quickenborne in
Kortrijk. The
SP.A-
Spirit puts strong results in cities like Antwerp, Ghent and
Ostend but has mixed results in other places. Most coalitions before the elections can continue with a stronger backing, most notably in Ghent and
Mechelen. An exception to this general 'rule' is
Vilvoorde, where former
prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene loses his majority.
Antwerp • In 2001 the VU-ID split up in 2 wings: the centre-right Flemish nationalist NVA, which formed a cartel with the Christian Democratic CD&V and the social-liberal Spirit which formed a cartel with the Socialist SPA.
Bruges Ghent Ostend Districts (Antwerp) Heavily anticipated were the results for
Merksem,
Deurne and
Hoboken, where it was believed
Vlaams Belang could obtain an
absolute majority. This however did not turn out to be the case, even though the party does advance in all but two districts (
Antwerp and
Borgerhout). Most notably, in Hoboken a majority without Vlaams Belang will only be possible by including the extreme left
PVDA, although another party,
N-VA, has already ruled out such a coalition.
Wallonia Provinces Municipalities Namur In Namur, the
capital of
Wallonia, the
Socialist Party (PS) lost 7.4% of its votes, enough for the local Christian-democrats (
cdH), Liberals (
MR) and Greens (
Ecolo) to start a coalition, breaking with the 30-year Socialist hegemony there. Jacques Etienne of chH will become the new mayor.
Brussels ==References==