The radical left-wing Belgian Workers Party (PTB-PVDA) will enter into power in a Brussels municipality for the first time ever, following a coalition agreement with the Socialist Party (PS) and Ecolo in Forest.
Forest has formed a municipal council one month after local elections on 13 October. PS list leader Charles Spapens will take the mayorship, leading a coalition between PS, PTB-PVDA and Ecolo.
The agreement was confirmed by Spapens at a PS meeting on Tuesday. The coalition holds 25 out of 37 municipal council seats.
"This solid majority will develop a project based on solidarity and responsibility to meet the challenges facing the municipality: security, social and ecological justice, social cohesion, housing, youth emancipation and economic development and job creation in Forest," list leaders Spapens, Séverine de Laveleye (Ecolo) and Simon de Beer (PTB) said in a joint statement.
De Laveleye referred to PTB as a "party like no other" when speaking to The Brussels Times about the slow pace of negotiations last month.
Despite previously opposing a coalition with PTB, PS reversed this position last week and entered into negotiations with the party in Forest, Schaerbeek and Molenbeek.
Left-wing commune
In Forest, the combined list of Mouvement Réformateur (MR) and DéFI came first last month with ten seats. However, over two-thirds of Forest residents voted for left-wing parties, with PS gaining nine seats and PTB and Ecolo winning eight each. Les Engagés won two seats..
PTB's ascension to power follows closely on the heels of a similar victory in Mons, Wallonia, where the radical left party formed a coalition with the same two allies on Friday.
The Mons agreement was criticised by MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez, who referred to it as a "coalition of shame". The party leader is a Mons native and led what PS mayor Nicolas Martin described as an "extremely aggressive and insulting" campaign in the run-up to local elections.
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Bouchez is one of several right-wing politicians to argue that there is a cordon sanitaire around PTB which prevents parties from governing with it. A cordon sanitaire was put in place for the far-right party Vlaams Blok (now Vlaams Belang) in 1989 but no such agreement has ever existed for PTB.
In securing a place in the Forest municipal council, PTB has fulfilled its electoral ambition of taking local power in at least one Walloon commune and one Brussels commune. It lost its place in Zelzate's municipal council in Flanders following elections last month.
The party has a chance of entering into coalitions in Schaerbeek and Molenbeek too, but both negotiations are deadlocked at the moment.
