Interpellatie Van Raadslid Peter Mertens: Gaslek Total Olefines Antwerp

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Interpellatie Van Raadslid Peter Mertens: Gaslek Total Olefines Antwerp gemeenteraad Zitting van 26 mei 2015 Interpellatie BEHANDELD Samenstelling De heer Bart De Wever, burgemeester-voorzitter De heer Koen Kennis, schepen; de heer Philip Heylen, schepen; de heer Ludo Van Campenhout, schepen; de heer Claude Marinower, schepen; de heer Marc Van Peel, schepen; de heer Rob Van de Velde, schepen; mevrouw Nabilla Ait Daoud, schepen; de heer Fons Duchateau, schepen; de heer Filip Dewinter, raadslid; mevrouw Kathleen Van Brempt, raadslid; mevrouw Freya Piryns, raadslid; de heer Gerolf Annemans, raadslid; de heer André Gantman, raadslid; mevrouw Güler Turan, raadslid; de heer Robert Voorhamme, raadslid; mevrouw Anke Van dermeersch, raadslid; de heer Karim Bachar, raadslid; mevrouw Monica De Coninck, raadslid; mevrouw Leen Verbist, raadslid; mevrouw Maya Detiège, raadslid; mevrouw Fauzaya Talhaoui, raadslid; mevrouw Fatma Akbas, raadslid; mevrouw Greet van Gool, raadslid; de heer Bruno Valkeniers, raadslid; de heer Toon Wassenberg, raadslid; de heer Wim Van Osselaer, raadslid; de heer Patrick Janssen, raadslid; de heer Peter Mertens, raadslid; mevrouw Yasmine Kherbache, raadslid; mevrouw Annemie Turtelboom, raadslid; mevrouw Liesbeth Homans, raadslid; de heer Mohamed Chebaa Amimou, raadslid; de heer Wouter Vanbesien, raadslid; mevrouw Mie Branders, raadslid; mevrouw Galina Matushina, raadslid; mevrouw Caroline Bastiaens, raadslid; mevrouw Carine Leys, raadslid; mevrouw Lisa Geets, raadslid; mevrouw Leyla Aydemir, raadslid; de heer Johan Klaps, raadslid; de heer Vic Van Aelst, raadslid; mevrouw Danielle Meirsman, raadslid; de heer Dirk Rochtus, raadslid; mevrouw Anne Giveron, raadslid; mevrouw Martine Vrints, raadslid; de heer Koen Laenens, raadslid; de heer Martijn Van Esbroeck, raadslid; de heer Franky Loveniers, raadslid; de heer Danny Feyen, raadslid; de heer Jean Goedtkindt, raadslid; de heer Joris Giebens, raadslid; de heer Kevin Vereecken, raadslid; mevrouw Fatima Talhaoui, raadslid; de heer Dirk Van Duppen; mevrouw Ikrame Kastit De heer Roel Verhaert, stadssecretaris Iedereen aanwezig, behalve: Mevrouw Maya Detiège, raadslid Verontschuldigd: De heer Filip Dewinter, raadslid; mevrouw Kathleen Van Brempt, raadslid; mevrouw Anke Van dermeersch, raadslid; de heer Karim Bachar, raadslid; mevrouw Yasmine Kherbache, raadslid; mevrouw Liesbeth Homans, raadslid 2015_IP_00154 - Interpellatie van raadslid Peter Mertens: Gaslek Total Olefines Antwerp Interpellatie Indiener(s): Peter Mertens Gericht aan: Marc Van Peel Tijdstip van indienen: 19 mei 2015 23:03 Toelichting: Grote Markt 1 - 2000 Antwerpen 1 / 2 [email protected] Op zaterdag 25 april werden werknemers van Total Olefins Antwerp opgeschrikt door een gaslek. Dit lek van 46 ton vloeibaar gas die de atmosfeer in gingen, was van zodanige schaal dat de installaties dagenlang moesten stilgelegd worden. Gelukkig vielen er geen slachtoffers. Van personeelsleden vernemen we echter dat het maar een haar heeft gescheeld of het gaslek was uitgedraaid op een explosie, en was zo niet alleen een drama geweest voor Total, maar ook voor omliggende bedrijven en heel Antwerpen. Sommige werknemers getuigen dat ze hun vertrouwen in de veiligheid van de installaties zijn verloren. Natuurlijk zijn we verheugd dat de expertise van de verschillende brandweerdiensten een gepast antwoord kon geven op de noodsituatie. Daarom *Heeft het stadsbestuur contact gehad met de betrokken directie en wat waren de conclusies van het onderzoek naar de oorzaken en de (mogelijke) gevolgen van deze incidenten? *Is er overleg geweest met de directie over maatregelen om een herhaling van deze enorme risico's voor werknemers en omwonenden onmogelijk te maken?" Antwoord Raadslid Mertens houdt zijn interpellatie. Schepen Van Peel geeft antwoord op de vragen. Raadslid Mertens houdt nog een wederwoord. - Het volledige debat is opgenomen en digitaal raadpleegbaar via het stadsarchief. Grote Markt 1 - 2000 Antwerpen 2 / 2 [email protected].
Recommended publications
  • UNIVERSITY of ANTWERP Faculty of Business and Economics City Campus Prinsstraat 13, B.226 B-2000 Antwerp Tel
    DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I like, therefore I am. Predictive modeling to gain insights in political preference in a multi-party system Stiene Praet, Peter Van Aelst & David Martens UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP Faculty of Business and Economics City Campus Prinsstraat 13, B.226 B-2000 Antwerp Tel. +32 (0)3 265 40 32 Fax +32 (0)3 265 47 99 www.uantwerpen.be FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT I like, therefore I am. Predictive modeling to gain insights in political preference in a multi-party system Stiene Praet, Peter Van Aelst & David Martens RESEARCH PAPER 2018-014 DECEMBER 2018 University of Antwerp, City Campus, Prinsstraat 13, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium Research Administration – room B.226 phone: (32) 3 265 40 32 fax: (32) 3 265 47 99 e-mail: [email protected] The research papers from the Faculty of Business and Economics are also available at www.repec.org (Research Papers in Economics - RePEc) D/2018/1169/014 I like, therefore I am. Predictive modeling to gain insights in political preference in a multi-party system Stiene Praeta, Peter Van Aelstb and David Martensa aDepartment of Engineering Management, University of Antwerp bDepartment of Political Science, University of Antwerp December 18, 2018 Abstract In political sciences there is a long tradition of trying to understand party prefer- ences and voting behavior to explain political decisions. Traditionally, scholars relied on voting histories, religious affiliation, and socio-economic status to understand peo- ple’s vote. Today, thanks to the Internet and social media, an unseen amount and granularity of data is available.
    [Show full text]
  • Who Is Leading the Campaign Charts? Comparing Individual Popularity on Old and New Media
    Peter Van Aelst*, Patrick van Erkel*, Evelien Dheer**, Raymond Harder* (*University of Antwerp; ** Ghent University – iMinds – MICT) Paper prepared for the ECPR General Conference, 2014, Glasgow Work in progress Who is leading the campaign charts? Comparing individual popularity on old and new media Introduction Traditionally, election campaigns are won in the mass media. Candidates that can attract plenty of journalistic attention and appear most on television and in newspapers are mostly also those that perform well on Election Day. Candidates’ best bet, then, always used to be to aim for getting attention through these mass media outlets. The central query of this paper is whether this knowledge still holds to this day, when social media outlets are becoming ever more popular. Are candidates who are more active on social media also the ones that lead the traditional media charts? Or do we witness rather a tradeoff, in which candidates that invest more in digital campaigning are less prominent in the mass media? Finally, we are also interested in the electoral effect of social media. Does being active and successful on Twitter lead to more preferential votes for candidates? We test these conflicting hypotheses using data from the 2014 Belgian election campaign. We compare the attention of a large number of individual candidate gets in the traditional news media (represented here by newspapers) to their popularity, activities and impact on Twitter. In this way, we pair Twitter data with traditional media data, hence, take a “multi-platform” approach. In doing so, we meet one of the current shortcomings of social media research, which is precisely the lack of understanding of the multi-media ecology of information flows (Tufekci, 2014).
    [Show full text]
  • Presidentialisation, Issue Attention and Negativity in Parties' Facebook A
    Campaigning on- and off-line: different ballgames? Presidentialisation, issue attention and negativity in parties’ Facebook and newspaper ads in the 2019 Belgian general elections. Keywords: political advertising, Belgium, social media, newspapers, Facebook, campaign. CAMPAIGNING ON- AND OFF-LINE 2 This research note investigates Flemish parties’ advertising on social media (Facebook) and in the written press during the final campaign weeks of the May 2019 general elections in Belgium. Since people had to vote for the federal, regional and European parliament, the stakes for parties were high, and prior evidence suggests this was among others reflected in campaign spending of over €20 million. This research note deals with two broad questions. First, to what extent have parties embraced Facebook ads as a new campaign tool? There is ample research about how social media have gradually become a crucial aspect of political campaigning (Jungherr 2016; Kreiss and McGregor 2018). We compare what Flemish parties have spent on Facebook ads and to what extent this has gone at the expense of newspaper ads. In addition, based on ad metadata we present a basic analysis of the demographics of the groups that were exposed to social media advertisements. Second, we ask whether this form of online advertising is substantially changing the ways parties campaign. Based on a quantitative content analysis, we investigate several characteristics of parties’ campaign advertisements on Facebook and in newspapers. In this way, the content of a traditional offline campaign channel is contrasted with a relatively new channel that parties have added to their campaign toolkit. More concretely, we examine three aspects of the ads that are related to important topics in the campaign literature: the level of presidentialisation, the issues of the campaign, and the degree of negativity of the campaign ads.
    [Show full text]
  • Download/Print the Study in PDF Format
    PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN BELGIUM 25th May 2014 European Elections monitor The Belgians are being called to the “election of all elections” on 25th May Corinne Deloy Translated by Helen Levy 8 million Belgians are being called to ballot on 25th May in what is called “the election of all elec- tions.” Indeed they will be electing the MPs, the Senators, and the regional representatives. Natio- nal MPs will be elected for 5 years (instead of 4 previously). The electoral reform which modified the federal electoral procedure is supposed to bring greater stability to Belgium. Analysis 129,139 Belgians living abroad are registered on the electoral rolls. Only 42,489 voted in the last parliamentary elections on 13th June 2010. Moreover polling stations will remain open for an extra hour, a measure allowed in the event of multiple elections. The elections on 13th June 2010 caused an electoral offer made by the N-VA”. “Placing the Socialist Party earthquake in Belgium. The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and the New Flemish Alliance, back to back is like led by Bart de Wever won 18.65% of the vote and took putting pyromaniacs and the fire brigade in the same 28 seats in the Chamber of Representatives (20.64% bag. Only the Socialist Party can stabilise the country,” of the vote and 9 seats in Senate), an unprecedented answered Prime Minister Elio di Rupo. result and the best score ever won by the secessionist party. The parties advocating the independence of A Belgian government without the Socialists seems Flanders (New Flemish Alliance, Vlaams Belang (VB) highly unlikely.
    [Show full text]
  • Solidarity Congress Broadening - Uniting Deepening Broadening
    BROADEN I NG UN I T ING DEEPENING SOLIDARITY CONGRESS BROADENING - UNITING DEEPENING BROADENING PTB CONGRESS SOLIDARITY PTB Les gens d’abord, pas le profit Les gens d’abord, pas le profit BROADENING UNITING DEEPENING SOLIDARITY CONGRESS 2015 Creation: www.commsa.be Layout: EPO Printed by EPO Printing Company Lange Pastoorstraat 25-27 2600 Antwerp Belgium Tel. 32 (0) 3239 61 29 © PTB-PVDA-Publishers Bd M. Lemonnier 171 1000 Brussels Belgium Tel.: 32 (0) 2 504 01 10 Fax: 32 (0) 2 504 01 41 Email: [email protected]; [email protected] Website: pvda.be; ptb.be June 13, 2015 PVDA BROADENINGEerst de mensen, niet de winst UNITING ROOD GROEN PMS 032 PMS 361 CMYK 0/90/86/0 CMYK 80/0/100/0 DEEPENINGRGB 229/53/44 RGB 13/177/75 SOLIDARITYRAL 3024 CONGRESSRAL 6018 2015 CONTENTS BROADENING - UNITING - DEEPENING 10 THREE KEY WORDS 11 OFTEN AGAINST THE TIDE, ALWAYS GENEROUSLY ON THE LEFT 12 1. TIMES ARE CHANGING 15 INTRODUCTION 17 1. A SOCIAL RESPONSE TO A PROFOUND ECONOMIC CRISIS 19 1.1. Illusion bubbles are bursting 19 1.2. Excess supply stumbles on a lack of demand 22 1.3. Treating the disease with medieval bloodletting 23 1.4. What lies ahead? 27 1.5. The crisis and the European Union 29 1.6. Social investment programmes and deep society change 33 2. A PROACTIVE PEACE POLICY AGAINST GROWING WAR THREATS 35 2.1. A new balance of power 35 2.2. The particular position of China as a rising power 37 2.3. Emerging countries challenge the hegemony of the United States 40 2.4.
    [Show full text]
  • Bekende Antwerpenaars
    ANTWERPEN | AMBERES | ANTWERP Bekende Antwerpenaars GEBOREN WONEN Bekende personen die geboren of woonachtig zijn of waren in Antwerpen of een andere significante band met de gemeente hebben: 15de Eeuw • Anna Bijns (1493 - 1575), dichteres en lerares • Cornelis Crul (ca. 1500 – 1550), dichter • Jacob van Liesvelt (1490 - 1545), boekdrukker • Joachim Sterck van Ringelbergh (1499 - circa 1531), encyclopedist, humanist en pedagoog 16de Eeuw • Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598), geograaf en cartograaf • Alexander Adriaenssen (1587 - 1661), kunstschilder • Ambrosius Bosschaert de Oude (1573 - 1621), kunstschilder • Anna Janssens (begin 16e eeuw - 1581), handelaarster, brouwer, investeerder in de haven en grootgrondbezitter • Anthony van Dyck (1599 - 1641), kunstschilder • Balthazar de Moucheron (1552 - ± 1630), een van de grondleggers van de Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie • Bartholomeus Spranger (1546 - 1611), kunstschilder • Bernaert Stockmans (eind 16e - begin 17e eeuw), onderwijzer zowel in Antwerpen als in Dordrecht • Bernardus Bauhusius (1576 - 1619), schrijver, componist en jezuïet • Casparus Barlaeus (1584 - 1648), predikant, schrijver en dichter • Catharina van Hemessen (ca.1528 - na 1567), kunstschilder • Cesare Alessandro Scaglia (1592 - 1641), abt-ambassadeur • Clara Peeters (1594 - ca.1657), kunstschilderes • Felix van Sambix (1553 - 1642), onderwijzer en meesterschrijver • Frans Floris (1519/1520 - 1570), kunstschilder • Frans Hals (ca. 1583 - 1666), kunstschilder • Gaspar de Crayer (1584-1669), kunstschilder • Hendrik van Halmale
    [Show full text]
  • Parliamentary Election in Belgium
    PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN BELGIUM 25th May 2014 European Elections monitor The Nationalists of the New Flemish Alliance wins the General Elections in Belgium Corinne Deloy Translated by Helen Levy The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the nationalist party led by Bart de Wever won the Belgian federal elections taking 20.33% of the vote and 33 seats (+6 in comparison with the same kind of election on 13th June 2010°). The N-VA came out ahead of the Flemish Democratic Christian Party (CD&V) led by Wouter Beke, which won 11.65% of the vote and 18 seats (+1); the Socialist Party (PS) of Results Prime Minister Elio di Rupo, led by Paul Magnette, won 11.64% of the vote and 24 seats (-2). The Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD), led by Gwendolyn Rutten, won 9.81% of the vote and 14 seats (+1), the Reform Movement (MR), Charles Michel’s liberal party won 9.58% of the vote and 19 seats (+1); the Flemish Socialist Party (SP.A), led by Bruno Tobback, 8.86% of the vote and 13 seats (=) and the Humanist Democratic Centre (cdh) of Benoît Lutgen, 4.92% of the vote and 9 seats (=). The Flemish ecologists of Groen! chaired by Wouter Van Besien, won 5.34% of the vote and 6 seats (+ 1) and Ecolo, a French speaking party led jointly by Olivier Deleuze and Emily Hoyos, 3.26% of the vote and 6 seats (- 2), a clear decline. Ecolo, which is now considered to be a management party (which sometimes forms obscure political alliances) and no longer as a party of contest, did not succeed in attracting those disappointed by the Socialist Party and undeniably suffered due to the break through made by the far left.
    [Show full text]
  • LIFE Vlaams Veldgebied Heathland Restoration in Flanders
    LIFE Vlaams Veldgebied Heathland restoration in Flanders 1 Content Vlaams Veldgebied is part of the Natura 2000-network of the Euro- pean important nature reserves and receives financial support of the LIFE-fund of the European Union. (You can find more information at www.life-vlaamsveldgebied.be) Vlaams Veldgebied 5 History 6 Project areas 8 Heathland around Bruges 8 Gulke Puen, Heideveld-Bornebeek and Vorte Bossen 10 Maldegemveld 12 Heidebos 12 Sharp decline 14 But positive change thanks to LIFE 15 Project objectives 16 What measures were taken? 17 Large-scale heathland restoration 17 Nardus grassland restoration 17 Fen restoration 18 Forest restoration 18 Long-term management of open habitats 20 Removal of exotic species 20 Public support 20 The volunteer as ambassador 22 Results 23 Remarkable results of the different project areas 25 What happens after LIFE? 26 2 3 In recent years a European nature restoration project took place in the project area ‘Vlaams Veldgebied’. With the help of this project Natuurpunt could restore a large area of heathland habitats, resulting in a beer future for many rare plant and animal species. In this brochure you will find out more about the objectives and results of this project. Vlaams Veldgebied Although heathland is mainly associated with the Flemish region ‘De Kempen’ (Antwerp province), vast areas of heathland formerly occured between Bruges and Ghent. The landscape in this sandy region used to be a mosaic of heathland and woodland. Some large forest and heathland areas remained. In the project area of Vlaams Veldgebied a special type of heath occurs.
    [Show full text]
  • Programme #CIP16 Friday 1St of July 2016 09:30 – 18:00
    Programme #CIP16 Friday 1st of July 2016 09:30 – 18:00 Venue: Antwerp Management School Sint-Jacobsmarkt 9-13, Antwerp (2000) Belgium Programme is subject to possible last minute changes 09:30 Registration and welcome coffee/tea at the Foyer 10:00 Welcome and introduction of the day at KS 203 Prof. Dr. Bart Cambré Associate Dean Research – Antwerp Management School (Belgium) 10:20 Keynote: Effective communication during the Brussels airport & subway attacks and other elevated terrorist threats in Belgium Peter Mertens Coordinator and spokesman – Federal Crisis Center (Belgium) 11:00 Keynote: Coordinated crisis communication: lessons learned in Swedish governments, agencies and society Stina Wessling Wessling Kommunikation AB (Sweden) 11:40 Comfort break Foyer 12:00 The "Bubble of Knowledge" project: a closer look KS 203 Discussion and member mapping by the “BoK” team Jan Vervoort – David Matthys – Tim Van Achte 13:00 Lunch Foyer During the lunch we want to provide you with the possibility to learn more about CIP Institute and our various activities. Join us for these short sessions: L1: Annual Report L2: Overview of all L3: Strategic L4: The Future of 2015-2016 current Institute Partnerships & our Institute Activities Sponsorships Luc Claessens (BE) Hugo Marynissen (BE) Adco member Stijn Pieters (BE) Ute Bock (Switzerland) Board member Board & Exco member Adco member For more information on keynotes and speakers, please refer to http://blog.cipinstitute.org Please turn over 14:00 Introduction of workshops CIP-representatives guide attendees to rooms Track A at KS 204 Track B at KS 103 Track C at KS 104 Civilian Participation Chaos, Complexity, Resilience Perception of Risk Introduction: Peter Mertens Introduction: Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Bewoners Willen Sinksenfoor Weg Met Stakingsvordering
    gva.be Jobs in Antwerpen partymobiel.be Nieuws Antwerpen - GvA RSS Twitter Facebook Zoekterm Zoek dinsdag, 12 februari 2013 aanmelden -4° / 1° Helder Kies uw gemeente zoek Digitale krant Nieuws Regio Sport Ontspanning Opinie Dossiers Tv-gids Tot uw dienst regio > antwerpen stad > antwerpen Tijdelijk extra tramlijn op LeienZeemanshuis ligt begin maart onherroepelijk tegen de vlakte Bewoners willen Sinksenfoor weg met stakingsvordering Aanbevelen 29 Tw eeten 3 0 08/02 Antwerpen (2000) Het hof van beroep heeft zich vrijdag gebogen over de milieustakingsvordering die vijf bewoners van het Antwerpse Zuid hebben ingediend tegen het stadsbestuur. Zij willen dat de Gedempte Zuiderdokken niet langer gebruikt worden als parking of voor evenementen, zoals de Sinksenfoor, op straffe van een dwangsom. De bewoners voerden aan dat de Gedempte Zuiderdokken in 1979 de bestemming van parkgebied kregen in het gewestplan, maar dat de stad nooit iets ondernomen heeft om er daadwerkelijk een park van te maken. "De grond werd verhard, waardoor de stad zelf de mogelijkheid creëerde om er evenementen te organiseren, ook al heeft ze daar eigenlijk geen vergunning voor", pleitte hun advocate Griet Cnudde. Volgens de stad is er echter een vermoeden van vergunning, omdat de dokken al tien jaar voor het gewestplan gebruikt werden als parking en evenementenplein. Het evenement dat de vijf bewoners het liefst willen zien verdwijnen, is de Sinksenfoor. Door de wekenlange geluidshinder, dreigt volgens hen permanente gehoorschade, maar de stad twijfelt daar sterk aan. De bewoners stelden een milieustakingsvordering in, maar een dergelijke procedure kan niet door particulieren worden aangespannen en daarom deden ze dit namens de stad.
    [Show full text]
  • Belgian Society and Politics 2013: As Ever, in Between Elections
    Belgian Society and Politics 2013 As Ever, in Between Elections Wim Vermeersch (ed.) Published by Gerrit Kreveld Foundation and Samenleving en politiek ampol Contents Rudi VANDER VENNET As Ever, in Between Elections p.3 Wim VERMEERSCH Editor’s Choice: Featured Articles p.4 PART 1 - THE LOCAL AND PROVINCIAL ELECTIONS OF 2012 Koenraad DE CEUNINCK, Ellen OLISLAGERS, Herwig REYNAERT, Kristof STEYVERS, Tony VALCKE Politics is a Card Game p.10 Marc HOOGHE, Ruth DASSONNEVILLE Determinants of Electoral Volatility Where Did the N-VA Find its Local Support? p.19 Marc HOOGHE Political Parties in the Trenches p.27 Peter VAN AELST Battlefield Antwerp How Flemish Nationalists Conquered City Hall p.31 Marc SWYNGEDOUW Battlefield Antwerp How Socialists Lost City Hall p.39 Frederik VERLEDEN Town and Country A Politico-geographical Faultline? p.48 Pascal DELWIT PS: The Tentative Steps of the Parti Socialiste p.57 PART 2 - THE FEDERAL, REGIONAL AND EUROPEAN ELECTIONS OF 2014 Carl DEVOS Sp.a: Taking the Offensive p.65 Dave SINARDET, Jérémy DODEIGNE, Min REUCHAMPS Beyond the Myth of Unanimity. Opinions of Belgian MPs on Federalism and the Sixth Reform of the Belgian State p.71 Nicolas BOUTECA, Carl DEVOS Flemish Nationalists (N-VA) Versus the Rest and... Themselves p.84 Hugues RENARD, Pierre VERJANS The Francophone Parties in Unfamiliar Territory p.92 Hendrik VOS Real European Elections at Last? p.98 As Ever, in Between Elections Rudi Vander Vennet Chairman Stichting Gerrit Kreveld This is the seventh yearbook ‘Belgian Society and Politics’, entitled ‘As Ever, in Between Elections’. It has been published by the Foundation Gerrit Kreveld, a Belgian study centre for social democracy and a think tank for innovative social-democratic analysis and policy.
    [Show full text]
  • BATTLEFIELD ANTWERP How Flemish Nationalists Conquered
    BATTLEFIELD ANTWERP How Flemish Nationalists Conquered City Hall Peter Van Aelst, Jonas Lefevere, Christophe Lesschaeve and Peter Thijssen Research group ‘Media, Civil Society and Politics’ (M2P), University of Antwerp In the wake of the local elections of 14 October 2012 there has been no shortage of analyses and speculations about what happened. They often rest on personal impressions of the campaign and the election results. In this contribution we should like to supplement these analyses with some empirical research in which the same group of voters was interrogated three times. Over 700 respondents took part in two surveys which were conducted before the local elections of 14 October 2012 and a third one in the weeks following. We hope that the results, will provide a clearer insight into the opinions and final party choice of Antwerp voters, and where possible how they developed in the course of the campaign.1 We shall first look at changes in voting patterns and then more closely at the importance of the ‘list leader’, the main candidate on a party’s electoral list, and the policy preferences of differ- ent groups. Our analyses shows that the victory of the Flemish nationalist N-VA was established way before the start of the campaign and that Mayor Patrick Janssens’ City List (Sp.a-CD&V) never posed a real threat to the N-VA’s lead. 31 SHIFTING VOTING PATTERNS IN THE ANTWERP LOCAL ELECTIONS The Antwerp results soon made it clear that, since the land slide victory for the Antwerp Socialists in 2006, many voters had changed their allegiance.
    [Show full text]