Results of the latest election in the Republic of Flanders

Entry posted by Edsel · November 8, 2015

506 views

Surprising Results of December 1997 Elections

The 1997 elections took place on December 24th, and the results were somewhat surprising. Everyone expected the Liberal Socialist Party to win the plurality of the votes (32.5 percent), but no one expected an increase in the number of Conservative Party voters in this election. Until now, the general consensus among experts that the political views of Flemish citizens was shifting to the left, as in the 1992 elections there was a significant increase in the amount of people voting for the Liberal Socialist and Marxist-Leninist parties. However, the percentage of people who voted for the Liberal Socialists decreased from 36 percent to 32.5 percent, and the percentage of people who voted for the Marxist-Leninists decreased from 10.5 percent to only 2 percent. The Moderate Party also experienced a drop in its percent of the vote. The Moderates used to be the second most popular party, and they are now only the third.

The Increase in conservative political views among the the Flemish population is believed to be partially caused by the increase in people following Christianity. The amount of people who are part of the Catholic Church in the country has increased from six percent to eleven percent since 1990. Also, in this election, most Conservative Party voters were white. About 86% of Conservative Party voters were white as apposed to 63% of the county's general population. Researchers think that this is because the conservative party is very anti-immigrant, and with a large influx in immigration in the last couple years, many xenophobic Flemish, Dutch, and English voters have begun to vote for The Conservative Party instead of the Moderates or the Liberal Socialists because they know that the Conservatives will attempt to stop immigration from Asia and Africa. In the last election, there were similar amounts of whites and non-whites who voted for The Conservative Party and the number of non-white Conservative Party voters has not increased between last election and this election.

Despite the Conservative Party's large increase in popularity in the recent election, The Liberal Socialist Party is still the largest party in Parliament. The Liberal Socialists have formed a coalition with the Moderate Party and, surprisingly, The Classical Liberal Party. In the past, The Liberal Socialists have only teamed up with the Moderates; however, in this election they had to add another Party to their coalition to avoid forfeiting control of the parliament to the Conservatives, as the amount of people who decided to vote for the Moderates this year has decreased significantly. Because the Liberal Socialist have teamed up with the Classical Liberals, many people are afraid that necessary healthcare reform laws will not pass, as the Classical Liberals want to decrease government spending on healthcare, and privatize the healthcare system.

Despite of all of the difficulties with the results of this year's election, Prime Minister Edsel assures the Flemish people that The Republic of Flanders will continue to grow and prosper in the years to come.

Election Results:
Liberal Socialist Party: 32.5%
Conservative Party: 26%
Moderate Party: 13%
Classical Liberal Party: 11.5%
Dutch Nationalist Party: 9%
Marxist-Leninist Party: 2%
Green Party: 1.5%
Other: 4.5%

Article by: James Wilson, Damiaan Albers, and Margreet Koeman
Published December 26th 1997 Orbis Time
Republic of Flanders News Network - 41 Leopoldstraat Antwerp, Flanders