Blegian Electoral registration office bans several left wing groups from contesting elections

international | politics / elections | news report

Tuesday April 20, 2004 16:26

by BelgianDemocrat

The electoral registration office in ‘French-speaking’ Wallonia rejected the signatures smaller parties had collected to legally stand in the forthcoming European elections. According to Belgian law, parties – in order to be able to contest the elections – either need the signatures of 5 members of parliament or have to collect 5,000 signatures of people who are entitled to vote.

The authority’s main legal argument is that people did not know which candidates they were endorsing when they signed the election papers of parties like MAS, the Belgian affiliate of the cwi. But the same arguments could be used to prevent the main parties from taking part in the elections. Nobody knows who is running on their lists before they register nor is their any democratic control over the wheeling and dealing between the traditional parties once elections have taken place.

Parties hit by this managed democracy are the PTB (Parti du Travail de Belgique), a Maoist party), RWF (Rassemblement Wallonie Bruxelles) a party which wants Wallonia to break from Belgium and unify with France, CDF (Chrétiens démocrates francophones) a split from the Christian Democrats, and two fascist parties the FN (Front National) and FNB (Front National de Belgique).

The traditional parties in Wallonia have been nervous about the outcome of these elections for some time. The social democrat PS (Parti Socialiste), which has been the biggest party on that side of the language border for most of recent history, is worried about an electoral backlash against its neo-liberal policies in the national, regional and local governments and in protest at their cronyism in Wallonia. In the last elections, the green party, Ecolo, was hit by an electoral revolt against its role in government. They lost all their seats and part of the voters flocked back to the PS. The far right and fascist parties, which are extremely disorganised in the French speaking part of the country, have picked up support in the last two years, and are on the verge of a breakthrough. Recent opinion polls suggest that they might receive between 6% and 8% of the votes.

The rise of these parties is caused by the anti-working class policies of the ruling class and the lack of a political alternative that would defend the interests of the working class and poor. The working class is suffering the combined effects of de-industrialisation, with cuts in social provisions and welfare. The policies of privatisation and neo-liberalism have left some of the regions in Wallonia, where unemployment is over 20%, amongst the poorest in Europe.

The MAS is fighting these elections on a socialist platform. We want to build a working class alternative to the policies of the ruling class. We want to build a left opposition against neo-liberalism. We have a proud record, in Flanders as well as in Wallonia, of fighting against the parties of racism and fascism.

The ruling class think they can stop all anti-establishment parties from gaining influence by preventing them from taking part in the elections. This is going to have the opposite effect, as it is seen by a large layer of the population as an attempt by the main politicians to protect their interests. They would do anything to be able to stay on the European gravy train.

The way in which the traditional parties, in alliance with the judiciary, have cooked up this ‘deus ex machina’ shows their utter contempt for democracy if the latter does not suit their needs. Like characters in ancient Greek dramas, they think they can use divine powers to right all wrongs and secure their monopoly on political power. In Belgium, voting is obligatory but the vote is not free. Failing to go to the polling booth might end with a fine. Failing to organise in a political party approved by the ruling class might result in that party’s ban from standing in elections.

The MAS, Mouvement pour une Alternative Socialiste, together with all the other parties effected by the ban, except, of course, the fascists, is taking legal action against the decision of the electoral registration office. The final decision has to be taken this coming Thursday. This play is not over, just yet.

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Comments (6 of 6)

However...

by okay, so not really cynical

Thu Apr 22, 2004 13:42

"You still have to decide whether it is right to give people a forum to spread their views, and such a decision must be based on what the consequences would be."

It's not necessarily true that such decisions need be based on what imagined consequences would result. With regard to the right, Vlaams Blok in Belgium, the Freedom Party in Austria and the Northern Alliance in Italy have all been elected to office with no collapse in the established system. There may be a rise in racist attacks, but whether the election of far-right figures is a cause or simply another symptom of the same problem is debatable. And in any event, it is not up to us to decide if people should be allowed speak. It's a human right.

"Whereas the ruling class may seek to hinder a potential threat from the left that might point out the true nature of the capitalist system"

The decision to ban a Maoist party is not automatically a decision based on a threat to the ruling class - I don't think there's a single government in Western Europe that's in danger of a real threat from the left - but rather on the ramifications of how they define themselves. A party defining itself as Maoist might face questions about the nature of China's human rights abuses under Mao, in particular his purge of "bandits, spies, bullies, and despots" which killed 700,000 people. Estimates of the number of Chinese killed for dissent during the start of his reign stand at about three million. The reasoning behind banning such a party is similar to the reasoning behind banning an openly fascist party.

I don't intend to argue that it's right to silence a political voice - I happen to disagree quite strongly with the idea of banning such parties and believe it only strengthens their core support. What I want to explain is how an adherence to a particular doctrine - in this case, the doctrine of leftist revolution - can blind one to the realities of political life and the reasons behind the decisions are made.

Not really cynical

by Doctor Yamamoto

Thu Apr 22, 2004 13:10

In both cases, people are invking the right to freedom of speech and expression. So it doesn't really have to surprise anyone if the arguements may be similar.
You still have to decide whether it is right to give people a forum to spread their views, and such a decision must be based on what the consequences would be.
Whereas the ruling class may seek to hinder a potential threat from the left that might point out the true nature of the capitalist system, many people on the left rightly say that the far right would (mis)use this right to incite hatred and violence and therefore it shouldn't be allowed.

Interesting:

by perhaps a little cynical...

Thu Apr 22, 2004 12:30

"The ruling class think they can stop all anti-establishment parties from gaining influence by preventing them from taking part in the elections. This is going to have the opposite effect, as it is seen by a large layer of the population as an attempt by the main politicians to protect their interests. They would do anything to be able to stay on the European gravy train.

The way in which the traditional parties, in alliance with the judiciary, have cooked up this ‘deus ex machina’ shows their utter contempt for democracy if the latter does not suit their needs. Like characters in ancient Greek dramas, they think they can use divine powers to right all wrongs and secure their monopoly on political power. In Belgium, voting is obligatory but the vote is not free. Failing to go to the polling booth might end with a fine. Failing to organise in a political party approved by the ruling class might result in that party’s ban from standing in elections."

The above sounds remarkably like the BNP's arguments when they are prevented from doing things. Something almost identical was read out in Trinity last year, when a BNP representative was forced to cancel his engaging in debate by threatened protests. A letter from him was read out, and it sounded like the above. The first sentence in particular could describe the behaviour of left-wing groups with regard to appearances by new right figures.

John/Royston/Bertie...

by Canteen Kevin

Wed Apr 21, 2004 17:39

... you may be glad to live under the FF/PD Junta but the rest of us are hardly going to benefit from privatisation, corruption and nepotism now are we?

Socialist parties?

Wed Apr 21, 2004 15:13

So your definition of a socialist party is a party whose name includes the word?
You would then, of course that the German Democratic Republic was, by the same logic, democratic, and its failure and collapse is a definitive and unrefutable demonstration that democracy cannot work?

Belgium

by John

Tue Apr 20, 2004 17:41

Reading this and discovering what a mess the Socialist and Green Parties have made of Belgium, I'm just so grateful that Ireland has an FF/PD government.

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Blegian Electoral registration office bans several left wing groups from contesting elections

Comments (6 of 6)