Brussels(The Brussels Morning Newspaper): Elke Van den Brandt from the Groen party aims to form a coalition in Brussels with Open VLD, Vooruit, and CD&V, excluding Fouad Ahidar’s team.Ahidar claims Open VLD is blocking his group to maintain power while he plans to run in several municipalities with diverse candidates.
Elke Van den Brandt from the Groen party is working hard to make a new government in Brussels. She wants Groen, Open VLD, Vooruit and CD&V to join forces. This plan is to gather enough support from different political groups to make decisions and get things done effectively. Even though Team Fouad Ahidar could help make a majority with just three parties Open VLD and Vooruit don’t want them in the group. The coalition will go ahead without Ahidar’s team and focus on the other four parties to get enough support.
Will Fouad Ahidar’s team join Brussels government talks?
Fouad Ahidar says that the French-speaking liberals (MR) didn’t say no right away when he talked to them. Even though MR had concerns about some of Ahidar’s ideas they didn’t officially refuse. Ahidar believes that any more talks with MR depended on reaching a deal with the Dutch-speaking parties first like Groen, Open VLD, Vooruit, and CD&V. Ahidar says MR will decide about his team based on how talks go with the Dutch-speaking parties. If the Dutch-speaking parties agree then MR might consider including Ahidar’s team.Ahidar is saying that Open VLD is blocking his team to keep control and power. He thinks Open VLD is trying to protect their influence even though they are partly to blame for Brussels’ money problems.
Ahidar says lots of Vooruit members want to join his group but top Vooruit leaders like Conner Rousseau and Ans Persoons disagree. This disagreement among Vooruit leaders is causing problems and making it hard to move forward with coalition talks.
Will Fouad Ahidar’s secular platform shake up Brussels elections?
Ahidar strongly believes in keeping religion separate from the government. He thinks other parties don’t always follow this idea. Ahidar criticizes these parties for having different rules about religious symbols. For example in some Flemish cities headscarves are allowed at government offices but not in Brussels. This difference according to Ahidar shows that other parties aren’t applying the secularism principle consistently creating a double standard in how they deal with religious symbols in public places.
Ahidar plans to run in about 9 to 10 municipalities in the upcoming elections. He mentioned having strong candidates from different backgrounds for his list. Ahidar mentioned that members from various parties are switching to his team. He confirmed that his team will run in several municipalities including City of Brussels, Molenbeek, Jette and others. However he is still deciding on candidates for Sint-Gillis and Vorst.
