Elections 2024: Education minister with mayoral ambitions and suspension of candidate glorifying fascism

Local elections will take place at municipal and provincial levels in Belgium on Sunday, 13 October. In the run-up to the vote, Belga English explores the main issues to watch out for and provides a daily overview of events.

- The brand-new Flemish education minister, Zuhal Demir of N-VA, has announced that she will quit as minister if she can become mayor of her hometown Genk in Limburg province. “If the people of Genk call me on 13 October, I will come,” Demir said. “If they want change and vote for me en masse, I will provide more security, more clean neighbourhoods and more Dutch.” Demir will head the N-VA list in Genk next week. She will take on incumbent mayor Wim Dries of CD&V. A poll by TV Limburg last month predicted a neck-and-neck race.

- Researchers of Ghent University have calculated that in the 13 main Flemish cities, the percentage of candidates with a migration background has risen to 15.5 per cent. That’s a slight increase compared to the previous elections in 2018, but the group remains underrepresented compared to its share of the population. Left-wing parties generally have more candidates with a migration background on their lists. While 19.7 per cent of the candidates of PVDA have a migration background, this is only the case for 4.2 per cent of Vlaams Belang’s candidates.

- The leaders of Groen and Vooruit do not rule out coalitions with the far-left party PVDA at the municipal level. They said so on Thursday evening during a debate on the Flemish TV channel VTM between the leaders of the seven major parties in Flanders. Collaborating with the far-right party Vlaams Belang is not in the cards for any of the parties.

- Vlaams Belang has suspended the Brussels-Italian politician Emanuele Licari, who is on the party's list in the city of Brussels. They did so after Brussels news platform BRUZZ revealed that Licari openly glorifies fascism on his personal website. “He misled Vlaams Belang by withholding information during the list-making process,” said the party's spokesperson. The party is also starting the internal procedure to remove him as a member. However, removing Licari from the list is not possible only ten days before the elections. Leading candidate Sonja Hoylaerts distanced herself from any form of fascism and Nazism.

^{Flemish minister for education and work Zuhal Demir arrives for a press conference to present the budget of the Flemish Government © BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK}