Brussels Mobility Minister Elke Van den Brandt, leader of the Groen party (which won the elections in the Dutch-speaking part of the capital), ruled out scrapping the Good Move mobility plan – despite this being a key policy that the majority party MR wants to challenge.
Van den Brandt's party won the elections on the Dutch-speaking side in Brussels, with 22.8% of votes. Their success was partly due to the Good Move plan, which Van den Brandt oversaw across the Capital Region.
"We already received a large share of the votes in 2019, but now we doubled that score," Van den Brandt's spokesperson Litte Frooninckx, told The Brussels Times. "The voters gave us a clear mandate for Good Move."
A city that breathes
Frooninckx explained that forming a majority on the Dutch-speaking side of the Brussels Government is impossible without Groen, and the party will not give up on Good Move. "It is more than traffic circulation plans. It also includes more cycling lanes, more trees... Sunday has shown that Brussels residents want a greener city, a city that breathes."
In the Francophone part of Brussels, however, the liberal MR party gained the most votes – putting it in charge of talks to form a coalition on the French-speaking side. Importantly, the party has largely focused its regional campaign on scrapping the Good Move plan.
"Whether MR likes it or not, I am the largest Flemish party (in Brussels) and I cannot be ignored," Van den Brandt said, pointing out the need in Brussels to form a double majority of both French-speaking and Flemish-speaking MPs to form a regional government.
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Still, she showed herself to be open to dialogue with the Brussels MR party, underlining that Brussels' MR supports the goals of the Good Move but takes issue with some of the plan's details and implementation.
Interviewed on VRT on Tuesday evening, the leader of Brussels MR David Leisterh had clearly changed his tune on the topic after the elections. "The objectives are good: fewer traffic jams, better air quality, more public transport. But Good Move 'as such' is getting a lot of opposition in certain districts. Mobility policy therefore needs to change."
In terms of coalition talks to form the Dutch-speaking majority, Van den Brandt's spokesperson confirmed that Groen is organising talks with all parties, from large to small. "At the moment, we are not commenting on the course of these talks and guarantee discretion to come up with a coherent and strong project for our city. The people of Brussels deserve that.
