Elections 24: meet the CD&V
In the run-up to the forthcoming federal, regional and European elections Flandersnews.be is publishing a series of articles about the policies, ideology and history of the 7 political parties that had MPs elected to the Flemish Parliament at the last election in 2019. The following article is about CD&V, a party led by Sammy Mahdi (photo below). With the Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, the Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem and the Secretary of State responsible for asylum and Migration Nicole De Moor, CD&V has three representatives in the Federal Government.
The party also has three ministers in the Flemish Government. These are the Welfare, Health and Family Minister Hilde Crevits photo below), the Economy, Innovation, Social Economy and Agriculture Minister Jo Brouns and the Minister responsible for Brussels, youth, media and the fight against poverty Benjamin Dalle.
CD&V or Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (Christian democratic and Flemish) is a party whose ideology is based on Christian values such as the importance of the family, a respectful and warm society and the value of each and every person. In its manifesto CD&V pays a lot of attention to welfare, health and care as well as striving to achieve a good level of income for all.
CD&V is conservative when it comes to ethical questions. The party doesn’t wish to relax the rules on abortion or euthanasia too much or too soon. As the party combines a progressive approach to socio-economic issues with a conservative stance on ethical questions, CD&V is often referred to as a “centre party”. The party’s position at the centre of the political spectrum means that it is often part of regional and federal government coalitions.
During the past 80 years the Christian democrats have rarely been in the opposition. While in power the Christian democrats like to cooperate with civil society organisations such as the unions, professional associations and others. CD&V also tries to be the voice of rural Flanders and of farmers.
The party’s top 3 priorities
1. CD&V wants to implement a major tax reform that fundamentally reduces taxes on working people's wages. The party wants all working people to have more net income, not just those on low incomes or those on high salaries, but also middle-income families and single people.
2. A better work-life balance for working families. This would be achieved through the introduction of a system called “Family Credit”. This would increase the amount of parental leave that can be taken by those with children. The leave would also be able to be taken until a child has reached the age of 18 (this is currently 12), the payments made to those on parental leave would be increased and grandparents and “plus-parents” (those in a relationship and living with the child’s mother/father) would also be able to take parental leave though the “Family Credit” system.
3. CD&V wants to ensure safe neighbourhoods, safe railway stations and areas to go for a night out everywhere in Flanders. This will be achieved by investing heavily in both more police officers and more community police to tackle both petty and serious crime.
A brief history of the party
The CVP, the christelijke volkspartij (Christian people’s party), positioned itself as a centre party that was inspired by Christian values and paid particular attention to the needs of the working class.
The party soon played a leading role in Belgian politics and from 1958 was part of the Federal Government for 41 years. During much of this time it was a politician from the CVP that was Belgium’s Prime Minister. The CVP was a the hight of its popularity in the 1970s with figures such as Gaston Eyskens, Leo Tindermans and Wilfried Martens. However, the economy slowed and unemployment rose.
The governments lead by the CVP politicians Wilfried Martens and Jean-Luc Dehaene in the 1980s and 1990 took measures to put the economy back on the rails and these weren’t always greeted with enthusiasm by voters.
The impact of 1999 dioxine crisis led to a big defeat at the elections that were held that year. For the first time in 41 years (with the exception of the Brussels regional government) the CVP was no longer in government.
The CVP decided that a restyling was overdue and in 2001 the party changed its name to CD&V, Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (Christian Democratic and Flemish). This failed to restore the party’s fortunes straight away and it wasn’t until 2004 when CD&V formed an electoral cartel with what was then the relatively new Flemish nationalist party N-VA that the share of the vote started to increase.
The breakthrough came in 2007 when the CD&V-N-VA cartel gained around 30% of the votes. The party’s leader Yves Leterme had a long list of demands on the devolution of powers to the regions and language communities and the division of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency. However, as the negotiations to form a new Federal Government dragged with no sign of any desire on the part of the Francophone parties to make any concessions the Flemish nationalist decided to leave the cartel in 2008.
Despite the party not polling as much at elections since it has remained a part of the federal and Flemish coalitions.