Elections 24: meet the Open VLD
In the run-up to the forthcoming federal, regional and European elections Flandersnews.be is publishing a series of articles that provide information about the policies, ideology and history of the 7 parties that are currently represented in the Flemish Parliament. Open VLD is the party of the current Federal Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. In addition to having two other ministers in the Federal Government (the Justice Minister Paul Van Tigchelt and the Secretary of State responsible for the budget and consumer affairs Alexia Bertrand), the party has ministers in the Flemish Government and the government of the Brussels-Capital Region.
Open VLD’s Flemish Government ministers are Gwendolyn Rutten and Lydia Peeters. Ms Rutten is Deputy Prime Minister in the Flemish Government and her ministerial responsibilities include interior affairs, integration and equal opportunities. Ms Peeters is the Flemish minister responsible for transport and public works. In the Brussels regional government the Open VLD politician Sven Gatz (photo below) is the minister responsible for finance, budget and the image of Brussels.
Open VLD or the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats to give the party its full name, is the Flemish liberal party. Freedom and personal responsibility are two of the party’s ideological cornerstone. Open VLD believes that citizens should above all be free to make their own choices and should take responsibility for the choices they make. The party is in favour of “small government” that focuses key tasks and should not interfere too much in the lives of individuals or in the activities of companies. Nevertheless, government should encourage people to be entrepreneurial and to protect individual rights and freedoms.
The free market is very important for Open VLD. The state should not own companies. The party believes that supply and demand is the way that prices should be determined. Open VLD advocates lower taxes.
The party’s position on economic issues puts it on the centre-right of the political spectrum. However, as regards ethical questions such as euthanasia or abortion the party is very progressive. The Flemish liberals believe that people should be able to decide for themselves.
The party’s top 3 priorities
1. Everyone that is in work should be rewarded. Those in work should take home at least 500 euro/month more than people that are not working. The Flexi-Job system should be expanded to all sectors of the economy and there should be no restrictions on voluntary overtime. Those working overtime should not be obliged to pay a higher rate of income tax.
2. Protect and strengthen our freedom: put the right to abortion into the constitution, give people living with dementia the right to euthanasia. The right to surrogate motherhood should be enshrined in law.
3. Cooperate to build a stronger country within a strong Europe: after the elections Open VLD was a new government to be formed as quickly as possible to address the socio-economic issues the country faces. The party doesn’t want to “waste time” on inter-community discussions between Flemings and Francophones.
A brief history of the party
The liberal party is Belgium’s oldest political party. It was founded in 1846. Back then the party’s manifesto included policies aimed at improving the living conditions of workers and the establishment of state education. For a century the party formed a political block against the Catholics.
In the post-war period a series of poor election results saw the then leader of the party Omer Vanaudenhove decided to change the name of the party to PVV, Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang (Party for Freedom and Progress). Although the party’s ideology had not changed, for the first time people that believe in God become welcome in the party.
The second big change came about in 1992 when the party’s then leader Guy Verhofstadt relaunched the party as VLD, Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (Flemish Liberals and Democrats). The inclusion of the word “Vlaams” (Flemish) in the party’s new name was a move to counter the “anti-Flemish” image that the party had at the time. Guy Verhofstadt brought on board numerous new recruits, including several leading figures from the Flemish nationalist party Volksunie.
This tactic worked and party improved its share of the vote at elections during the rest of the 1990s. In 1999 VLD became the largest party (albeit by a hare’s breath) and Guy Verhofstadt became Belgian Prime Minister, while another liberal Patrick Dewael became Flemish Prime Minister. Since then, the party has been in every federal government and all but one Flemish Government coalition. (Open) VLD has also been party of the coalition that forms the Brussels regional government since 1999.
Not without incident
The past 25 years have not been without incident. In 2010 the then leader of the Flemish liberals, the current Federal Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, withdrew his party’s support for the Federal Government that at the time was headed by the Flemish Christian democrat Yves Leterme. The reason was the failure to split the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency. Mr De Croo’s decision to pull the plug on the Federal Government was not appreciated by the voters and VLD lost a lot of ground in the federal elections that followed. Since then VLD has become Open VLD and Alexander De Croo is the Prime Minister in the 7-party federal coalition government. Needless to say Mr De Croo will play a major role in Open VLD’s election campaign.