Belgian local elections: Greens limit the expected losses but protests erupt for the ‘betrayal’ by the Socialists

Brussels – On Sunday, October 13, Belgium held local elections. In general, the center-right performed well, the Socialists showed that they were still alive, the Greens lost a lot but still existed, and the left held.
The area of the country that attracts the most interest is Brussels, which is, in fact, a single city but administratively is one of Belgium’s three regions (the other two are Flanders and Wallonia). It comprises 19 municipalities, which share many services, from public transport to waste management and the police, and each has its mayor, registry, and rules.

The Greens were remarkably successful in past elections, winning as many as three mayors and sitting in many majorities. Perhaps the most significant case was in Ixelles, a municipality of less than 90,000 inhabitants right in the center of the city, full of contrasts, with over 100 nationalities represented, luxurious areas, countless restaurants, and a great diversity and cultural vibrancy but also pockets of hardship and poverty. A municipality led by Liberals for decades, in 2018, the Greens, led by Christos Doulkeridis, received 33 percent of the votes and have since governed the municipality in alliance with the Socialists.

As had already happened during the European, regional, and national election campaign in June, during the campaign for the municipalities, the Greens and their emblematic policies, from the Green deal to mobility, became the favorite target of the right and beyond, in a highly polarized and unaccustomedly aggressive political context for Brussels. In particular, the regional “Good Move” mobility plan became the symbol of a “punitive” and ideologically anti-car ecology; the right made this issue and the defense of motorists the centerpiece of its election campaign. The ruling ecologists, for their part, could or would not respond effectively to this campaign, which was made easier by media hostility and a never-ending series of other interventions on the road. Despite this, the ECOLO-Groen list was first for votes and won 13 seats, as did the MR Liberals.

On Sunday night, everything suggested that the municipality would remain in the hands of the ecologist, with a repeat of the alliance with the socialists. Instead, this was not the case. In Ixelles and Brussels City, the largest municipality, the one that gives its name to the Region, the Socialist Party chose to ally itself with the right; it was in Ixelles, however, that the most contested “betrayal” in this post-election period took place.

In Ixelles, the MR offered the Socialists the seat of mayor if they agreed to break the alliance with the Greens. The Socialists, who came third with nine councilors, decided to form a center-right traction majority with MR (13 councilors) and other minor parties, leaving out the Greens. In Brussels, the Socialist mayor simply decided to change the majority, taking it to the right.

“This backstabbing complicates possible talks at the regional level,” Nadia Naji, co-leader of the Flemish Green party Groen, told Brussels news platform BRUZZ. “The fact that the SP-Vooruit mercilessly throws out the Greens in municipalities where we have achieved good results, such as Ixelles and the city of Brussels, is a clear signal for the formation: they don’t want us there,” Naji said, pointing out that “the majority of voters in the city of Brussels and Ixelles voted left-progressive, but were left out by the SP.”

However, this decision did not sit well with many Socialist voters as well as, of course, with the Greens. On Thursday, the 17th, there will be the penultimate city council meeting of the “old” Ixelles legislature; the new council will take office in December. And it will not be a quiet evening (it meets at 7 p.m.), not even outside the little building atop the hill overlooking the City Hall. Many people are preparing to show their dissent with the change of majority decided by the Socialists, gathering in the square in front of the Chamber to contest a choice that most call a “betrayal.”