The BoerBurgerBeweging win received a lot of international attention. For example, the German Rhenisische Post speaks of a ‘government defeat that threatens the stability of the coalition’ and the BBC calls it a ‘political earthquake’. But the BBB victory is also the big news for our southern neighbours.
Especially since in Belgium there seems to be a relatively equal feeling. According to VRT journalist Steven Viktor Decraene, the Belgian media is full of them. “It’s really big news here,” he says. ‘That was the start of the evening news, the papers are full of them and it’s only about Caroline van der Plas.’
Decraene says Flanders wants to know all about the BBB frontwoman and how she managed to transform a “one-sided nitrogen movement” into a major anti-establishment party. “This has a lot of resonance in Flanders.”
Parallels
Although, according to Decraene, similar sentiments are alive in Belgium, Belgian politicians remain in the shadows for the time being. For example, there would be someone who would like to draw or see parallels, but prudence is the trump card. ‘I saw a tweet from the president of CD&V (the Belgian equivalent of the CDA, ed), the party that opposes the nitrogen agreement, who speaks of a ‘landslide’ and that it is a ‘logical consequence’ of the contempt for rural regions and the agricultural sector”.
Decraene thinks there is a certain echo in this, that people in Belgium are expecting a similar resurrection in Flanders.
Farmers
Especially since the Flemish agricultural sector feels incredibly strengthened by the electoral victory of the BBB. For example, a movement calling itself the “Flemish BBB” has even emerged in Flanders, with the support of Van der Plas. “This movement already has 2,500 members,” Decraene continues. “You feel that there is a lot of support in Flanders for what is happening in the Netherlands.”
“You feel that there is a lot of support in Flanders for what is happening in the Netherlands”
Decraene dares to doubt that the feelings are directly comparable. “In Flanders they sometimes say ‘if it rains in Paris, it will drizzle in Brussels’, but whether it will be the same in The Hague remains to be seen,” she says. ‘We have long had a political party like Vlaams Belang, which has long documented society’s dissatisfaction. So we don’t have the Dutch tradition of parties emerging quickly and then disappearing just as quickly.’
Source: BNR
Fernando Dowling is an author and political journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He has a deep understanding of the political landscape and a passion for analyzing the latest political trends and news.
