The N-VA has been in the lead for some time in the latest polls for the Brussels Region and could well become the largest Dutch-speaking party in 2024. A government participation of the Flemish nationalists in Brussels is therefore not excluded. A reality that the current Prime Minister of Brussels, Rudi Vervoort (PS), has already ‘consigned’ to. “If there is no other way, why should we oppose it,” said Vervoort in the French-language newspaper ‘La Libre’. “I don’t think the N-VA is out to block the institutions.”
The Brussels Défi chairman Fabian Maingain (and Vervoort’s coalition partner) does not agree with that. For him it would be a doomsday scenario if N-VA becomes indispensable on the Flemish side in the Brussels government. “The N-VA has a destructive project for Brussels,” says Maingain in an interview with ‘La Capitale’. “Anyone who defends the interests of the people of Brussels cannot resign themselves to working with the N-VA. Her nationalist project is at odds with the interests of the people of Brussels.”
The Défi leader wants to pull out all the stops to isolate the party. “If the N-VA is mathematically necessary for a Brussels government, then there are the constitutional procedures that allow to isolate the N-VA.” Maingain refers to the anti-blocking system that makes it possible to vote ordinances without a double majority of French speakers and Dutch speakers after a cooling-off period.