2023-08-25 04:51:00
This was the heart of Raoul Hedebouw’s New Year’s speech. “We need more Zelzate and Borgerhout in Belgium”, launched the president of the PTB to the activists, in reference to the only two municipalities in the country in which his party belongs to the majority.
The far left party has also made it clear that it does not plan to govern either at the Federal level or in the Regions. There will therefore be no Grand Soir in 2024. Even if, at the municipal level, the PTB says it is finally ready to get its hands dirty.
The Brussels-Capital Region is particularly targeted. The PTB covets three or even four municipalities there.
There is Saint-Gilles, one of the most left-wing municipalities in the country, where the current dynamics might cost the PS its absolute majority.
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”You should know that several party members live in Saint-Gilles, including members of the Pestiaux family (Editor’s note: David Pestieau is political director of the PTB). The headquarters of the PTB is also very close. We see that the PTB uses the party’s national campaigns in Saint-Gilles, with a strong marketing presence. Loïc Fraiture, their municipal spearhead, is close to the national authorities and has great ambitions”, points out Jean Spinette (PS), mayor of Saint-Gilles.
There is Molenbeek where the PTB, led by Dirk Block, snatched 7 seats in 2018. The great left alliance with the PS (17 seats) had already been discussed in 2018 with the future mayor Catherine Moureaux, without success. But the party has fertile ground in this town to make itself politically essential in 2024.
There is Schaerbeek, where the majority is suffering.
There is Anderlecht, where the PTB won 7 seats in 2018. The PS retains 16 municipal councilors there while Ecolo, which governs with the Socialists, only has 8. A change of alliance, mathematically, is strong conceivable. “I have no problem, intellectually, to make a left agreement with the PTB following the elections”, assures Fabrice Cums (PS), mayor of Anderlecht. “But whether that’s realistic remains to be seen. I am not sure they will leave the comfort of the opposition.”
Fabric Cums embodies the voice of those who, many in the PS remembering the unsuccessful negotiations of 2018 in Molenbeek or Charleroi, are skeptical.
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”They want to play the head of the socialists”
“They want to get on the nerves of the socialists and we’re tired of being their target,” sighs Jean Spinette, mayor of Saint-Gilles. “Anyone who wants to help our constructive left politics is welcome. But as in the Muppet Show, they are on the balcony tirelessly repeating it’s the-men-table. This behavior is weird from people who say they want to work with us.”
However, resentment does not guide a policy, assures Fabrice Cums, who nevertheless came under vindictive attacks from the PTB during the implementation of the Good Move plan in Cureghem. “Whoever makes definitive exclusives did not understand how a municipal council was managed.”
Ecologists do not close the door either, but are no more convinced than socialists.
The PTB defends itself from any attempt at bluff. Simply, in the Marxist software of the party, a majority is not negotiated, it is imposed.
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“We are not naive, no one is going to reach out to us. It is clear that this will be played out in the popular communes where we have a balance of power and enough votes to actually allow us to enter into the majority.”
”We are not naive, no one is going to reach out to us. It is clear that this will be played out for us in the popular communes where we have a balance of power and potentially enough votes to actually allow us to enter the majority. But it won’t be Anderlecht, Molenbeek, Saint-Gilles, or nothing. There is also Schaerbeek, for example”, argues Giovanni Bordonaro, president of the Brussels-Capital Region PTB, and leader in Anderlecht. He explains the logic of his party. “We plan to participate in majorities in municipalities where we are well established, with active sections and where people’s expectations are high. To be clear, we are more expected in Anderlecht, Molenbeek or Saint-Gilles than in Watermael-Boitsfort. We are getting ready.”
Giovanni Bordonaro politics PTB Brussels ©Jean Luc Flemal
Never with the MR
Giovanni Bordonaro, however, excludes any participation with a right-wing party. “With the MR, there is not even a debate. The possible agreements are with Ecolo and the PS.”
He says he is not closing the door to regional participation even if, we understand, it won’t be for this time yet… “We are expecting a lot of austerity. What we might do at the Region will depend on what will happen at the Federal level. However, if the Federal does not assume the financing of the Regions, or if they move towards confederalism, it will be complicated to carry out a left-wing policy in the Brussels Region”, adds the president of the PTB Brussels-Capital Region. Reasoning has the merit of honesty.
But in practice, what would the presence of the PTB change in a municipal majority? Like the Ecolos, the party pleads for citizens’ assemblies. Like some of the Brussels PSs, the PTB wants an offensive policy for the construction of social housing by the municipalities and a more “offensive” use of the municipal tax on large surfaces. Giovanni Bordonaro also pleads for free sports halls for young people.
“They want free everywhere, but without offering recipes”, observes Vincent Vanhalewyn (Ecolo), first alderman in Schaerbeek. “At this stage, I don’t see any signals from them that they are ready for the beginning of a compromise. I think they are more in the posture”. Response following the October 2024 elections.
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