Bart De Wever (N-VA) is also a candidate for mayor in Antwerp again: “I would be crazy not to defend that” | Domestic

“I am certainly not the first nor the only top politician in that case, combining local politics with national mandates. It is complicated, but it is useful for a large city,” he responds to the criticism that he will be both a candidate for mayor and a candidate for prime minister. He will make his candidacy official on Sunday at the N-VA Antwerp city congress.

In the interview on Radio 1, he further explained his federal ambitions. “If we in Flanders are incontournable and can take the initiative, a link will be established with the federal government. I will not be deceived twice,” said De Wever, referring to the agreement he concluded with the PS after the previous federal elections, but after which the French-speaking socialists still entered a “green-left” government.

“The schedule that I consider most realistic to avoid a long political crisis (…) is to start as soon as possible at the federal level with a mini-cabinet based on regional majorities. Then you automatically have a majority (also federally),” De Wever explained. “In Wallonia I estimate that Ecolo and the PS will be in the government again, with possibly Les Engagés, in Flanders it will be a right-wing government as far as I am concerned.”

“These two communities together create a mini-cabinet, and then you can negotiate the change of this country from community to community,” says De Wever. “If you also allow the Flemish, right-wing majority to take office federally, the dies are cast. Then you avoid a long political crisis.”

De Wever admits that this approach “looks a bit like the Brussels model”, “but it is mainly the philosophy of two communities that each make their own democratic choice, but now have to conclude that this cannot be made into federal policy”.