Today local and provincial elections were held in Belgium and the results are currently being made public. The communist party (PVDA-PTB) while staying relatively small has already managed to accomplish a few seats they didn't have before. I'm eagerly waiting until more results of Wallonia come through, where the PTB is much more popular than the PVDA in Flanders.
Zijn er nog Belgische anons hier? Wat vinden jullie ervan? // Y a-t-il encore des anons belges ici et qu'est-ce que vous en pensent?
Belgian elections thread
Angel Stewart
Juan Barnes
Belgje present. I think Belgian politics are a joke, I want to vote communist soooo badly but the PVDA or SPA or even GROEN (the green party) are so retarded… Belgain politics is just a 'who knows who'-game while throwing buzz words like "you're extreme right" "ow you're left" at each other. For god sake even the most right wing party in flanders (Vlaams belang) is more left economically than the workers party (SPA).
Brandon Thompson
Needs more Mertens is what I think
Samuel Lopez
Agreed comrade.
This is now a Mertens thread
Generally it's a massive circus obviously. I don't know if it's better in a lot of countries on the European mainland though, with the exception of Spain, Portugal and Greece where the left seems to be fairly strong.
Why would you say so? I've been involved with the party for a bit less than a year and I think they're definitely decent. They often get behind social democratic measures, but this is IMO the best praxis given the circumstances, in which it would be absurd to call for revolution. The Russian communists once wrote a ☭TANKIE☭ article calling Mertens out for being a "revisionist", basically because he doesn't walk around cosplaying as Kim Jong-un, but in debates it's frequently very clear PVDA politicians (including Mertens and Raoul Hedebouw) still adhere to Marxism: they heavily criticize capitalism, defend the works of Marx against strawmanning, always defend workers' interests, etc. Moreover they are tactically quite good which is what makes them so popular. I like Ludo Martens but under his leadership, the PVDA would arguably never have managed to grow this large.
Socially too, it seems, considering how people like Johan Vande Lanotte embrace rhetoric about a "schoonmaak" (if i remember the terminology correctly) to get rid of migrants, yet completely ignore the rising poverty in the country.
It's also pretty funny how VB takes over PVDA rhetoric about combatting the project developers. Horseshoe theory confirmed i guess
Robert Campbell
Adding to this, the fact that the PVDA programme was put together based on the results of a large-scale enquiry among working class people makes it more democratic than any other programme in Belgium.
Cooper Peterson
Being nationalistic doesn't tie you to any sort of economic policy.
Ethan Fisher
You can follow the election results here:
vlaanderenkiest.be
elections2018.wallonie.be
bru2018.brussels
Which is why I said "socially".
Noah Perry
Somewhat off-topic yet directed at the Belgian anons here: Do you agree with the analysis PVDA/Comac makes of Schild & Vrienden? It seems clear to me this movement can be positioned in the international alt-right, but do you think it is correct (apart from the tactical side of things) to stress the links between S&v and N-VA? Or do you agree more with the argument many rightists make, that this movement just consists of "edgy teens" and shouldn't be taken all too seriously?
Jace Anderson
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Anthony Young
Really user, you work with the PVDA? I would like to speak with you some time. My problem with the PVDA and the main reason I don't vote for is the fact that their main selling point is their opinion on social issues and their economic policie seem to ne a secondary thing. I know that every party in Belgium does this but for an communist one economics should be priority. Atleast I do think so