Elections 2024: Lahbib: Berlaymont, not Schaarbeek, and cars or bikes, that’s the question

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.

-Federal minister for foreign affairs Hadja Lahbib will not participate in the elections. She was heading the list of francophone liberals MR in the Brussels municipality of Schaarbeek. After she was proposed as the Belgian candidate EU commissioner, she withdrew the local candidature and will now focus on her future in the Commission.

-Mobility will be a very important topic during the local elections. The car is still the favourite transport mode of many Belgians, but nearly everywhere initiatives are taken to limit the use of cars. In Brussels, the debate is very heated and goes under the name ‘Good Move’, an initiative from the present Brussels government.

In Ghent, the debate also runs high. In recent years, the alderman for mobility, Filip Watteeuw of green party Groen, did a lot to push cars out of the city, in favour of bicycles. N-VA, the current main opposition party, wants to “focus on accessibility and abolish bullying measures”.

Besides the choice between cars and bicycles, the LEZ (low emission zone, to prohibit polluting cars from entering the city centre) is also part of the debate.

_{#FlandersNewsService | © BELGA PHOTO PHILIPPE FRANCOIS}