2023-10-20 17:58:00
For political scientist Carl Devos, the announcement of a big change of leaders for the elections was not a surprise. “Joachim Coens had brought new faces for the CD&V to the federal government with Annelies Verlinden and Vincent Van Peteghem, it is logical that they might now occupy a head of the list. It would have been very surprising not to place them there even though they are ministers. The same for Jo Brouns (Flemish Minister of Agriculture and Employment, Editor’s note) in the Flemish government,” he explains.
Koen Geens absent from casting
If the presence of members of the federal and Flemish government at the top of the list surprised no one, the absence of Koen Geens is causing discussion internally. “The choice to put Wouter Beke at the top of the European list rather than Koen Geens was strongly criticized within the party, indicates Carl Devos. After his bad stint in the Flemish government, Beke has a real image deficit and a reputation problem. Should we not have favored the unanimously recognized and eloquent Koen Geens? The answer from CD&V is obviously no, and this can be explained by a traffic jam in Limburg. The party president chose renewal, and that left no room for Wouter Beke,” he continues. Indeed, it is Nawal Farih, 35 years old and Sammy Mahdi’s private partner, who will lead the federal troops into Limburg.
Mahdi assures, however, that everyone in the party will have their role to play, without wanting to confirm the presence of the former Minister of Justice as a candidate in 2024. “It is logical that we count on personalities like Koen Geens, Joke Schauvliege or Koen Van den Heuvel, who have a lot of experience, to recall the historical values of Christian democracy,” he insists. The president of the CD&V will also take the place of Koen Geens, that of head of the list in Flemish Brabant for the Chamber.
Not the same revolution as Les Engagés
Such a renewal of faces is of course reminiscent of the choice made by Maxime Prévot at the head of Engagés, historic partner of the CD&V in French-speaking Belgium. “The Engagés went much stronger in their evolution. They have definitively abandoned the notion of Christian democracy. The CD&V, conversely, reaffirmed it. It refocuses on the values of respect, on farmers. It’s old school, but with more offensive communication than before,” adds Carl Devos.
The Flemish party therefore advocates evolution rather than revolution. A strategy that might pay off? “The question is to know from what result we will speak of a good score for the CD&V. When we see how low they had fallen in certain polls, up to 10% of voting intentions, perhaps a result of 12 or 13% will be welcomed as a big victory,” replies the political scientist from the ‘UGent. In 2019, the CD&V recorded the worst result in its history, with 14.17% of the votes in Flanders.
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