Democracy!
Regional and European elections were yesterday. Results weren’t as disappointing as the federal elections in 2007 in that they likely won’t turn out as abysmally, but they’re still pretty sad in what they say about the Flemish voter.
First, the regional results. VRT always makes nice graphs, so let’s steal them:

That’s just the Flemish elections, because obviously I don’t live in Wallonia or Brussels or the German canton so I don’t have as much to say about them.
For our American viewers, this is roughly how they compare to the US Democrats and GOP, insofar as a political party can be reduced to a single dimension. Lijst Dedecker may be unfairly placed, because obviously the only LDD member who knows anything about the LDD platform is the guy who wrote it in the first place. And that’s not even Jean-Marie Dedecker.
Some of the denser political commentators seem to be baffled by the “paradox” of people preferring the “stability” of CD&V while also yearning for “change” by voting for N-VA and Lijst Dedecker.
To be absolutely clear, this is why people voted for Lijst Dedecker:

And this is why people voted for N-VA:
And this is why people keep voting for CD&V:

Their respective platforms don’t have shit to do with anything.
I’m just glad that the people shallow enough to vote for a party because their public face who wasn’t even on the list in four of the five provinces is a jolly fat guy on the whole also seem to be the people idiotic enough to vote for Vlaams Belang in the past election. Plus my mom.
I suppose it’s good enough news. Lijst Dedecker got more votes than they deserved, but still not so many that anyone would be inclined to take them seriously, and while N-VA is dumbfuck rightwingery, they’re infinitely preferable over Vlaams Belang.
Vlaams Belang, which lost eleven of its seats in the Flemish parliament (of the 32 they had), and half of its seats in the Brussels Capital Region parliament (down to three, from six).

N-VA keeps getting votes for reasons unrelated to their platform, though, and thinking that means their Flemish independence twattery is gaining legitimacy among the people. Last election they were in a cartel with CD&V and piggy-backed on Leterme’s inexplicable popularity, and this time it’s De Wever being lol fny on the picture box.
I’d hope most N-VA members also realise Flemish independence is at best a pipe dream and at most realistic a diversion from real problems that they’re cynically exploiting. I’d rather have cynics than dipshits.
Incidentally, guess which canton is the most socialist in Flanders?
I voted for them because the alternatives were worse, but they really, really didn’t deserve it. I don’t think they could have put together a more obnoxious line-up for Vlaams Brabant if they tried. If this keeps happening I’m renouncing my membership.
Or moving to Zottegem.
By the way, an honorable mention goes to PVDA+, our beloved Trotskyists. Their clown campaign is responsible for one of the largest (relative) gains in these elections: they went from 0.6% of the vote to 1%. By the end of the century, they may even make the eligibility threshold!

Anyway.
The European election results aren’t world-shaking. Vlaams Belang lost a seat and gave it to Lijst Dedecker (even though Dedecker said he has no interest in Europe, of course; his “base” is as brain-damaged as he is), and that’s all that changed for Flanders. The greens gained a lot in the Walloon regional elections, so no surprises there either. The Germans get to vote on one MEP (and are as such overrepresented, but fine), and voted for a Christian Democrat again.
I’m told “the right is on the march” in Europe in general (it has been for years), but right now I don’t particularly care.
Regardless of your political convictions, I think everyone can agree the most important thing is that Vlaams Belang got its ass handed to it. Even if Antwerp still sucks.
Edit: Also:

Yeah.









Apparently
If you aren’t familiar with the album, in it, Tintin visits Congo, which was a Belgian colony at the time (1931). The actual storyline isn’t very interesting, but he interacts with the natives on several occasions, and yes, by today’s standards it’s quite racist.
Hergé has been dead for twenty-four years. The album is seventy-six years old, and somehow it went without lawsuit for all that time.
So apparently my blog was crashing IE consistently (as opposed to randomly, which it manages all by itself). I couldn’t actually be bothered to figure out why, and embedded YouTube videos were blamed.