De Wever: "The next Mayor of Antwerp will be someone from the N-VA”
The current Mayor of Antwerp, the leader of the Flemish nationalist party N-VA, Bart De Wever has said in a television interview that someone from his party will take over as Mayor if he were to become Prime Minister in the new Flemish Government. Speaking in the Limburg municipality of Bilzen, where the local elections are being re-run due to irregularities in last October’s count, Mr De Wever said that any replacement would come from the nationalist party ranks.
It was the first time that he had reacted to the socialist Alderwoman Jinnih Beels’ comment that she would like to become Mayor if Mr De Wever had to step aside to become Flemish PM. Bart De Wever refused to comment on the progress of the talks to pave the way to the formation of a new Flemish Government. However, he did say that he is a candidate to become Flanders’ next Prime Minister. However, if he were to become Flemish PM who should replace him as Mayor?
Alderwoman Jinnih Beels (socialist) has already said that she would like to take over if Mr De Wever were to vacate the post of Mayor. However, Mr De Wever says that this is out of the question.
Speaking about his eventual successor he said “It will be someone from the N-VA. Given the balance of power on the council that seems perfectly logical to me, we have 23 seats”.
Mr De Wever added that he isn’t bothered by Ms Beels repeating that she wants to succeed him “I’m not bothered. It’s freedom of speech”.