Tienen (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Mayor Jonathan Holslag of the Durf party reversed his decision on council seating, allowing members to sit by party after opposition. Bart Thomas of Tienen Anders criticized the backlash but suggested a trial for new ideas. Elias Cool of Vlaams Belang supported the return to the old plan due to communication issues during voting.
Mayor Jonathan Holslag of the Durf party has changed his decision about the seating in the Tienen council. He first wanted members to sit in alphabetical order. After facing a lot of opposition, he will now allow members to sit with their party again.
Holslag did not comment, but Bart Thomas, leader of Tienen Anders, spoke about it. He said the opposition was very upset and even talked about skipping meetings. Thomas thinks this reaction was disappointing. He believes the strong pushback left Holslag with no choice but to change back to the old seating plan.
Did the Tienen council miss the opportunity with alphabetical seating?
According to Bart Thomas, he prefers sitting with his party. However, he noted that Durf won the elections with a strong message about new ideas. He thinks other parties should try new things. Thomas criticized the opposition for rejecting the new seating plan completely. He suggested a trial period of 6 months to see if it would work.
He admitted that people like their habits, but he believes not giving change a chance is not helpful. He also said that threatening to skip meetings was not necessary. While the old seating plan is coming back, he thinks not trying the new idea was a missed chance for the council to be more open and modern.
“On the other hand, Durf won the elections by a wide margin with a story of innovation. The other parties must also be prepared to accept this. Threatening with a boycott is of no use to anyone. This was something new. We could have done this for six months and then evaluated whether it was better or not,”
Thomas concludes.
Elias Cool, the leader of Vlaams Belang, sees things differently from Bart Thomas. He thinks going back to the old seating plan by party is a smart choice. His main concern is not just about how members sit but about how the decision was made. Cool says the opposition was not asked before the change happened, which he finds sad.
He understands that Holslag’s original plan had a good message. The mayor wanted to show that all representatives in Tienen should be heard and that working together is important. Cool likes the message, even if he disagrees with how it was done.
According to the Cool, the new alphabetical seating plan had problems. It affected how the council worked. During the first meeting, there were voting mistakes. Members of Durf, the mayor’s party, accidentally voted for an opposition idea.
Cool thinks this happened because the new seating made it hard to communicate. He also notes that there was disagreement among the majority coalition about the change. This made the decision less valid. Because of these issues, Cool believes going back to the old seating plan was a good idea. It will make things clearer and help avoid confusion in future meetings.
