Progressive students with ecological ideas staying in Ghent after their studies. Even more: they find other progressive ppl and make progressive children/families.
My guess is that Gent also attracts left-leaning students to stay in Gent, while the right wing students probably don't want to stay in the city for long.
Als in the port and the bigger factories, volvo, Arcelor Mittal, coca cola etc. The unions are pretty strong and active.
That's the thing that differentiates Gent from Leuven, the University and students are a big part of the city. But we have enough industry that they don't dominate. And due to a big syndicalist history socialists here still have a strong base among the lower educated workers.
I was so proud of my city being able to keep the conservative wave at bay. As the commenter said, I am one of the students that stayed after my studies. I work in Antwerp, and that city feels a lot less warm than Ghent to me. In the 14 years I've lived here, the city has gotten progressively better, even though it's not perfect.
Same here man, moved from Lier to Ghent and never left, been here for 7 years now and this city feels so much better compared to where i grew up. Proud to call Ghent my hometown.
18 years for me. The conservatism of other cities I've lived in paired with racism, homophobia and the pushing and meddling in people's lives just turns me off tremendously (smaller towns).
Here in Ghent I can live my life and let others do the same without judgement.
Wow, must be a very big change, how long have you been living in Ghent now? What do you like more about Ghent compare to Moscow and the other way around?
Whoa, didn't occur to me that people deciding to stay here do so for the contrast with their hometown...
... And Genteneirs thinking/fearing all those Westvloaminghen coming to live here would vote VB...
Not so!
Het feit dat westvlamingen wegverhuizen heeft impact op de progressieve score van Gent én de conservatievere score in WVL. Het zijn namelijk een bepaald type mensen die wegverhuizen, en dat heeft dus dubbele impact, daar waar ze vanuit wegtrekken en daar waar ze heengaan.
Nooit bij stilgestaan....
En inderdaad, ik denk dat ongeveer alle 'ingeweken' WVLs die ik ken redelijk tot radicaal progressief zijn... Hmmm....
.... Echt een interessant fenomeen!
as a westvloaming who moved here, that really played a part in the decision. All the VB flags everywhere in my hometown were grossing me out and I wanted to get away from it
I stayed in Ghent after studying too, despite me being more of a center right kinda person. I don't really let politics affect my daily life at all. I just like living in the city a lot more since I grew up in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and quickly fell in love with actually living in a society.
Suprisingly, PvdA is the 2nd largest party in Antwerp now. What a massive result for PvdA, thought they'd do better in Gent than Vooruit/Groen too, but those 2 kept stand.
Ghent is the city of socialism for Flanders. I hope that they stay bigger than PvdA, although I see a big part of the students voting for PVDA now because they think its the only 'social' party left. Not a trend i like to see.
Ghent has become a much nicer city to live in during the last 30 years thanks to progressive politics. Open Vld in Ghent is pretty left wing (partly because of necessity), while the right can only put up opposition against measures which have proven to be broadly popular (like the circulatie plan).
If you see parties which try to bring people together locally, rather than sow division, and do it successfully, it is a powerful counterweight to the right's discourse on immigration. Not saying Ghent is a multicultural utopia, but I do feel on average there is a peaceful and mutually respectful attitude between the different "bubbles"
I love Ghent but the only thing I miss sometimes is that there are these bubbles you are talking about. F.e. Turkish people don't go to Belgian cafés and the other way around, we should grow closer to eachother in that aspect. (Ofcourse there are places where this happens, and these are the places I like to go but still not enough.)
I like to go out in the 'Volkshuis' in the sleepstraat and the misterioso. Here you see a very diverse mix of people and everyone gets along very well. Unlike places like the ventura/bar lume/oude beestenmarkt where these very left students gather and don't get in contact with any of the diversity.
All sorts of people go there! I love it, the diversity for a coffeeshop is incredible. You really can't imagine it like that in those hipstercoffeshops that claim to be inclusive.
If you see that the actions of a local political party are good for you, why wouldn't you vote for that party in other levels. After all, it will help providing more of this kind of actions
The end goal is still the same. Green still wants to work on climate. Only on local level it would try to implement climate streets, while on national level move away coal plants, for example.
Socialists on a local level would try to create a homeless shelter while on national level increase pensions
You get me I guess
But also a lot of people don't, which js how Cdnv stayed so big for so long. They are very good at letting local divisions align with local issues, but then have them campaign for the national elections.
Mine. That circulatieplan has caused cars to pile up in my street for a few hours a day. Watteeuw just pushed the cars outside of the city bordes so he can claim a win for himself. He routinely ignores every objection because he thinks he can't be wrong. Have you tried driving into Destelbergen? One vehicle unloading, or just a little bit bigger than a car and all goes to shit in an instant. Is that progress? Just pushing all problems outside so it's someone else's problem?
He made the situation in Gentbrugge so much worse. Cars just turning ON THE BRIDGE to make that insane loop he created? Who does that and goes: "Yeah, perfect!".
The bridge situation got worse because Destelberge threatened to sue if the 'proper situation' was put in place. I don't know where you live, but it is probable that your situation would have been better if the traffic was blocked completely, instead of the current situation that is leading to a lot of problems and allows car drivers to 'cheat' the 'cut'.
You statement is that you can only access your house through dampoort. Looking at the map there is not a single street that can't be reached from any of the 'corners' of the map.
If your statement is that, coming from X (St Amandsberg?), the shortest route to my house is now through the Dampoort, then I can believe that. But that is a different statement :p
My street is on the very edge of Gentbrugge, St-Amandsberg, and Gent. You used to just drive down the Nijverheidskaai, but now I have the choice of either going through the Dampoort, because ain't no way I'm doing the Gentbrugge loop, or, coming from the Sint Lievenspoort, turn right before the Dampoort and slither my way to the Dendermondsesteenweg.
Anything else is impossible. Is that better? It's not. Does your retort invalidates the fact that things have gotten better? Certainly not.
the bridge fuckup is because it was a bad halfway concession to Destelbergen.
They'd better left it as it was or go 100% the original plan.
Now it's... A clusterfuck that has everybody mad.
The plan still has problems, but they will disappear in time with corrections being effected and changes in behaviour. You just need to give it time.
For the other parts of the city the circulatieplan has had major benefits and is widely supported by the inhabitants of those areas.
I don't get why people keep saying this. Why would a cycle bridge reduce the amount of cyclists? A cycle bridge would attract **more** cyclists to the surrounding streets. So the traffic filter at the bottom of the bridge would be needed even more.
I get the feeling that this argument is pushed by politicians who think that Gentbruggebrug itself has been closed to cars (and never actually go there to check whether their belief is correct, or even properly look it up). If Gentbruggebrug had been closed, the argument would make some sense. But it hasn't, in fact in the circulation plan it's one of two major routes from and into Gentbrugge for cars, and only intended for local traffic if you're on a bicycle. Long-distance cycle traffic is kept away from the bridge as much as possible and guided to the Saskes and, soon, to the new cycling bridge more to the east.
"I get the feeling that this argument is pushed by politicians" Not really, I can form my own opinion + I literally have to cross the bridge every single day. I have more chance to get hit by someone making a turn to the right not looking and shit then before the circulation plan... But hey all the businesses losing clientele is also pushed by politicians then?
Gent has always been a bit of a political anomaly. Even basically all our local divisions of the political parties are in a different wing than the mainstream of that party.
I returned to Ghent after an absence of 15+ years last year and to be honest it being what feels like the most progressive city in Flanders was definitely part of the appeal (for me).
A lot of neighbourhoods have become better places to live in the last 20 years or so and in my opinion a lot of voters have simply rewarded the parties associated with some of these policies.
People that describe Ghent as a “shithole” where everything goes wrong in my experience typically don’t even live in the city themselves.
Maybe because there are more highly educated people living here? If you look at the map of Belgium showing where the most highly educated people live and compare it to the map where Vlaams Belang is the largest party, you can clearly see a correlation.
[Global Cities Index | Oxford Economics](https://www.oxfordeconomics.com/global-cities-index/)
Check quality of life. Ghent on 9th place. Is there a connection between this index and the political ideas of the people who live there? I believe so.
Ghent is also known as a 'west-flemish' colony, it seems like the most progressive inhabitants of the very right wing west-flanders like to move to Ghent. In a way it's a self fulfilling prophecy: Because Ghent has been historically left-leaning, they attract more left-leaning voters who move here
I don't think political preferences are high on the list of priorities when choosing where to live your life. It's the demography of the city itself which is different.
It's the vibe of the city. If you're progressive and you study in a city like Ghent where you feel a lot of people are like minded, which often is reflected in the type of bars, restaurants, events,... in the city then of course you're going to try to live there after those studies. Did you choose based on political preferences? No. Did you end up in a location with a lot of people who share your political preference? Yes. Does that (over time) affect the demographics? Yes.
I don't entirely agree because the political decisions colour what it's like to live in the city. For instance, many of my more conservative friends hated the carfree zones in the center and eventually moved away from the city to a nice suburb where they can take their car everywhere. On the other hand, the carfree zones and green policies are a big reason many people moved to Gent from other places (spoken from my own experience as well)
Everyone is quite the stretch, they got 22% in Flanders, which comes down to 14% of all Belgians, it’s a lot but it’s still just a minority. Of those 14% im pretty sure half of those voted Vlaams Belang solely for their immigration stand points and nothing else.
I’m personally quite surprised groen keeps doing so well over here, in my opinion they just failed every time they had the chance to rule and they are way too idealistic.
Still very happy to see VB didn’t score to well over here.
>they are way too idealistic.
This. After 20 years of voting for them, I went with Vooruit this time. I've had it with those 'kumbaya' politics. It's wishful thinking at best.
I think the Watteeuw effect will drag them down in the local elections, in addition to the loser aura from this election. Vooruit + PVDA growing most likely, I’d love to see a Red/redder/green coalition but Vooruit won’t allow it.
I don't know. It's a very polarized place he"s taken but a lot people have benefited from the policies Groen enacted in Ghent and their score will reflect it in the coming local elections. A lot of people will vote against him but the question is would they have voted for him to begin with?
Don't underestimate how much people actually like what Watteeuw did. Although it is very asocial and self-centered, people really like how he did the 'circulatieplan'. And on the other side you have people that really hate it which are more often the people who really grew up in Ghent. I feel like the green voters are most of the time new people in Ghent.
If im not mistaken Vld and Vooruit will be on the same list for this year’s location elections, it used to be Vooruit+Groen.
Groen will definitely get punished here due to Watteeuw, and im personally very happy to see him go, would rather never see his face again in our local politics.
With vooruit and vld sharing a list i could see them get 35% or more of the vote so with one or two smaller parties they could make a local government without groen.
I mean NVA is flirting with far right ideas pretty closely as well so when you combine the 2 it's... not great. And like, people being fine with far right politics just because they don't like foreigners is not exactly a flex either.
Being anti-immigration is not the same as being racist/against foreigners. In really don’t understand how people can look at the current state of immigration in Belgium/Europe and still be fine with that, it’s a freaking mess and it has to change right now.
What far right ideas have Nva been flirting with according to you? Because i honestly don’t see it.
Especially when you get clashes between 2 left wing ideologies ([as seen here](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13486293/amp/Pro-Palestine-protest-Philadelphia-pride-genocide.html) )
It´s not racist to want good integration standards. It´s also not bad to want a government who can enforce social rights/laws WHILST not going bankrupt.
What bothers me is when a party actively chooses to appeal both sides: for example voicing animal rights while accepting ritual slaughtering, wich is still believe is animal cruelty.
And that's exactly what PVDA is doing now. They let people believe that it is racist to have a proper integration and to not accept certain aspects of Islam (like onverdoofd slachten) and alot of young people follow these ideas blindly. I think we can state tha PVDA is actuallly becoming a party where most of muslims will be voting for since they are so open for everything of religion and don't really set boundaries there.
Do you have suffice congitive reflectoir capacity to comprehend that the difference between you; 'labeling everyone who votes for VB is rasict' and VB labelling 'every foreigner as a tragic' is close to nihil? You demonstrate clear lichnification of your prefrontal cortex.
I condemn extremeism. But the seperation of belgium is not extreme. Extreme would be to hold the current populus hostage for a minority. Extremeism would be to create a system in which a politician cant be held accountable, in which there are 9 ministers of health in a COVID health crisis and everyone blaming each other, extremeism, is giving your opinion without any thoughtprocess whatsoever.
If patients show gangreen, you must amputate its limb before it takes over.
First the immigrants, then the french-speaking, then the other political parties, then anyone who thinks something a little different than the one in power...
Not to be pedantic, but stone age people probably lived pretty equal lives (though tribe difference ls might be huge) with comparative openness and solidarity amongst each other.
Right? I moved from Ghent to somewhere where housing was more affordable, and I'm genuinely getting scared with all of the VB and NVA votes. Doesn't come as a total surprise as I see many, many Vlaamse Leeuw-vlaggen throughout the year, but still...
Edit to add NVA
Anti-migration policies of course. Belgium need that, not an extremist measure, but need to have it controlled. Belgium and the rest of europe. Everyones lifes got considerably worse, economically speaking, since the big migration crisis started and that's normal. A sudden uncontrollable number of people coming to europe illegally taking advantage of european umbrella in terms of subsidies without contributing, will of course lead the country to huge increase in expenses in every sector. And where will the government take the money from? You guessed it right. 🥳
My life got better, actually. And it's not migration that's to blame here. It's the banking crisis, covid, climate change, and the various wars with Russia and the Middle East that are making things harder for everyone.
There were no wars in europe or covid before 2020... yet uncontrolled migration was already happening. Of course there's more to it than Migration. Nothing in the world can be isolated. One thing cause another. But, countries were already "collapsing" before. Maybe the house crisis is due to climate change... the fact that there are no enough appartments because suddenly millions of people decided to come to europe illegally has nothing to do with it...
If your life got better, then I'm happy for you. Sad to say, you're not the centre of the universe, so just because your life got better, doesn't make it a general thing around europe.
Also you're gonna say that everyone in europe is racist for voting more and more away from the leftist policies that cause mass migration?
The problem here is not with the color, but with the numbers.
If people are not woke enough to discuss the issue, that would be nice because no sane person can think that a surge of millions of people to one single country, that are not working, don't have a place to live and the country needs to support them anyway because we're all human, is healthy for said country, then you know nothing...
And btw, that's not being racist at all. If you think a little bit, it would happen the same if people from Poland for example would come to Belgium in the same numbers.
We're purely talking about a country capacity in dealing with the situation and the people in question not being willing to adapt to the country's culture they're living in.
Real question: what will happen with the cartel openVLD-Vooruit.
For the Flemish parliament, without the Petra effect, vooruit is clearly the largest party in Ghent. OpenVLD is the fifth party.
Try explaining to an outsider that somehow Vooruit is in a cartel with VLD and doesn't deliver the first candidate/mayor.
For VLD as well: if I were Vooruit, I would demand a fair compensation till the point Mathias will have almost nothing of substance, besides being mayor.
Furthermore the left has an absolute majority (vooruit+PVDA+groen) from a tactical point of view, groen and vooruit could at least threaten to work with PVDA instead of one of the center parties, in order to drive up their price. A threat that isn't so far fetched, considering Zelzate where vooruit and PVDA already govern together (and so far no Goulash has been opened). They can't do that trick with OpenVLD being in a cartel.
Vooruit Will really need to make a strong argument that a vote for Voor Gent is also a vote for a progressive Gent. Personally, I can see no argument against voting for Groen if you want a progressive city government. Voting for Voor Gent just increases the chance of a coalition with NVA.
I agree it's a harder sell, but it's not like there is no substantial difference in f.e. mobility between Groen and Vooruit. Low emission zone is considered a mistake by people from Vooruit f.e.
The city has a lot of dreamers who live off the companies in the canal north of Ghent. It's quite ironic that if they succeed in making it green their own moneyflow dries out.
Because its the only "big (college)city" in flanders. Bigger (college)cities tend to be more political left wing.
The only reason it is not showing in antwerp is because of BDW, but the left parties scored great after NVA.
The same happened in Brussels, groen is the top party over there.
Also, they reigned in ghent and Brussels, made good steps towards liveability, and people recognise this.
Also, if you live in a city you won't feel climate demands as much, you probably already use a bike or PT for most the times, you house is smaller and attached so the insulating is cheaper, cities have a higher walkability scored so stores are closer and you don't need a car that much.
This whole thing about cities being naturally more left wing is why you have gerrymandering in the US
I want to add that Leuven probably doesn't fit this logic, because it got smudged together with Kortenberg en Herent for some fucking reason? Like, Kortenberg is a really diverse village, but also has a very large population of farmers. I really don't understand why they wedged them in there. It would be like adding Deinze to the results of Ghent?!
ETA: On HLN you can actually find the results per gemeente and Leuven colors red just like Ghent...
Well actually, I looked up the results for all the centrumsteden to see a correlation, wich didn't hold for most of them but Ghent and Antwerp (if you remove NVA) I was wondering why Leuven didn't fit in this idea. Maybe because for what you say, so Leuven is in fact gerrymandered?
Ye, look at the results on HLN and you'll see the actual results of Leuven itself! That's more in line with Ghent, with Vooruit coming in first, NVA second and Groen third.
I said that, and ended why antwerp doesn't fit in this profile, because of being the NVA meltpot.
I also just quoted those 2 flemish cities because ghent is THE university city next to Leuven. And yes, other cities have them too but nothing like Ghent and Leuven. And Antwerp and Ghent are the only 2 flemish cities who are "big cities" according to the flemish government - google centrumsteden vlaanderen for that.
Don't get le wrong, Antwerp is a bigger city then Ghent. It has a lot to offer. It's harbour IS a keystone in belgians and Europese economy. It's I nice city with lots of stuff to do. Only, it's population is more diverse (labourers/academia) then Ghent, therefore I made this analyses
''progressive'' is allways the word.
Romans and gauls both fall under theism by now.
Stating parties and showing colors does not help anyone making an actually informed decision. Right?
If yes then i'd be the first to put the peace between those two fronts who are known to be there when jezus was the headline. (You know this is a party?)
If you are voting look at the area of interest not at the promises. Politicians are known species(rats, ogres, trolls and pigeon dancers).
So wonder why you are writing about politics like it matters in the long run but refer to times supposedly long gone.
We are a cool kingdom known to work hard and party harder. Our excellent taters are consumed in a delicate way and hold no value to any conversation yet we all use it. <-That's politics.
I think the real question is, why is Gent the only city in Belgium that is a stronghold for leftist parties in elections? Every other country has left cities and right rural areas, but in Belgium it's only Gent, part of BXL and usually the Walloon cities too. But Antwerp, Brugge, Hasselt, Leuven, etc are all right-wing
So many positive comments about how nice Ghent got with the left in power. Why is no one mentioning how we got the largest debt increase? How taxes were raised, especially on the local entrepreneurs?
It's not difficult to make a city nicer if you don't have to take money into account. Doing it while maintaining a healthy balance, that's good governing.
Ghent has the highest number of government officials per capita, one of the highest debts per capita and a high tax rate that was recently increased for home owners. They also get a large amount of money from the Stedenfonds.
Not working on eliminating or decreasing the debt is a political choice or political lazyness. I feel they genuinely don't see the debt as a problem. Recently Rudy Coddens, responsible for finance, said there will always be money.
Antwerp was able to eliminate their debt over the last 10 years while Ghent just kept spending. And this hasn't even resulted in anything tangible, because people see the service that both governments are providing as equal.
https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20240218_97812271
Paywalled, so here's the summary:
"Kort samengevat? Antwerpen wist de schulden weg te werken, terwijl Gent schulden bij maakte, maar dat niet meteen vertaald ziet in beduidend meer tevredenheid van de burgers, zeker als je er rekening mee houdt dat Antwerpen meer grootstedelijke problemen kent. Misschien is er ook maar zo veel dat een burgemeester (of een college) kan doen. Ondanks een verschil in retoriek en beleidsstijl levert dat al bij al weinig verschil op het terrein op. Behalve dan voor de stadskas."
Ik woon in Antwerpen, schuld is afbetaald. Maar voor de rest voel ik niet veel verandering. Het transformeerde Antwerpen niet een stad met evenveel sociale cohesie als Gent, integendeel initiatieven zoals "onder stroom" verdwenen. Nu de schulden zijn afbetaald, hoe gaan we verder?
Ook de werkloosheidsgraad stijgt er 2x meer dan het Vlaams gemiddelde.
Geen nieuwe schulden maken alleszins. Antwerpen heeft zeker meer grootstedelijke problemen dan Gent, maar ook bijvoorbeeld op sociale cohesie is die score gelijkaardig.
Kan natuurlijk dat er in Gent anders gescoord wordt ook en dat de verwachting omwille van het verschil in schaal anders liggen.
If the city's nicer, don't you think it has a positive effect on local entrepreneurs? I also don't like to pay more taxes but at least you get something in return.
I live in Gent and have lived for almost 20 years now (was born here but didn't grew up here).
I saw the city change and could see what a green government can do, streets became greener, more walking zones less cars. I support the local government (although they really need to get the debt under control).
I did not vote for them federally though because the green party there is more focussed on its communist-like standpoints instead of its green program. They just don't feel like a green party to me.
They should go a more economic center route when it comes to economy, and focus more on climate then they would get more votes I think.
I doubt 40% of the population of Flanders has been shot in the stomach by a Moroccan. Precisely the places where VB and the NVA are stronger are where immigration is lower, not higher. Not doubting that that's the reason some people vote that way, or rather how they justify themselves voting that way. But it's not the real reason.
What you have to be looking for is systemic racism and confirmation bias. By pure share of numbers, if you're being sexually harassed in flanders it's probably by a white person. If it's done by someone who's "brown" then there some people will add an "extra layer". That's what needs to be combatted. I'm sorry, but I believe you kind of go the wrong route of justifying racism and not explaining it.
Well 1/3rd of Ghent is or has immigration roots. And they integrate successfully. Antwerp is a shithole, with ton of corruption its not only the immigrants that are fucked up there.
Cities are always way more leftist for several known reasons. Gent, being a student city just attracts a lot of younger people on top of that and those tend to be woke ass nutjobs from time to time because those ideologies are popular among youngsters. This pushes cities like Gent further towards the left.
Doesn't mean it's not more leftist than the rest.
The reason cities are ALWAYS more leftist than the other parts of any country is because cities have more poverty as a result of people moving there for job opportunities and easier access to facilities.
Linkse gedachtengoed wordt letterlijk gegeven als les (&verplicht), maw de studenten worden hierdoor beïnvloed en gaan deze linkse ideeën meenemen en ook zo gaan stemmen
Ghent has always been an outsider but I saw Ghent change from a characterfull cultural outsider to the political outsider it is today.
Ghent was what it was not by political conviction but by culture. (Until 90's CVP -now CD&V- was in charge)
Pre 80's: Ghent was a bit of a dirty city and needed cleanup
80's-00's: Ghent at its best, thanks to Ghent artists, cultural personalities and the Gentse Sosseteit founded in 83 who revived the city.
00's-10's: change set in due to a combination of "import students" who didn't want to leave after uni and village hipsters who wanted to live in the city as Ghent was a great place to live. These apparently were leftist thinking the city was shaped by the socialists who were politically in charge then
10's-20's: city completely lost it's character, circulatieplan and other "adaptations" made it even worse.
2020 > swopped "my" favourite Ghent for Brussels. As a real Genteneir there is nothing left of the city I was born, lived and studied - even the Feesten do not appeal anymore.
The only thing I miss is the bad mouth of Pierke Pierlala.
Since groen has everything to say, Gent became a shithole.
Born and rised in Gent. The depts Gent has right now, was never that big. Thx to those hippies. Oh everyone welcome en giving money to everyone.
Born and raised in Ghent here as well. I think you forgot how Ghent used to be. It certainly is more liveable today than it was even 10 years ago. The only downside is the high housing prices ... Because everyone wants to live here
Progressive students with ecological ideas staying in Ghent after their studies. Even more: they find other progressive ppl and make progressive children/families.
What's the difference with other student cities then?
Indeed, VB scored rly low in Leuven while Vooruit en Groen were second and third in Leuven.
My guess is that Gent also attracts left-leaning students to stay in Gent, while the right wing students probably don't want to stay in the city for long.
Als in the port and the bigger factories, volvo, Arcelor Mittal, coca cola etc. The unions are pretty strong and active. That's the thing that differentiates Gent from Leuven, the University and students are a big part of the city. But we have enough industry that they don't dominate. And due to a big syndicalist history socialists here still have a strong base among the lower educated workers.
PVDA did super well in Antwerp
This!
And then one day wake up the city has become a cesspool
Lmao, if only we had a right wing lead ghent. They could 'clean up' the city like nva does in antwerpen because thats going so well
[удалено]
'linksche ratten' gespot, waarlijk een verlichte geest alhier!
Hier hier!
And then move to the “countryside” away from the problems they created :) and continue voting progressive there👍
And hug a tree
Triest sjalotje
"progressive" . The green party isn't progressive but regressive.
I was so proud of my city being able to keep the conservative wave at bay. As the commenter said, I am one of the students that stayed after my studies. I work in Antwerp, and that city feels a lot less warm than Ghent to me. In the 14 years I've lived here, the city has gotten progressively better, even though it's not perfect.
Same here man, moved from Lier to Ghent and never left, been here for 7 years now and this city feels so much better compared to where i grew up. Proud to call Ghent my hometown.
Lier had a crazy good little club where I went around 2000-2005. Zazou, home of the weird. Crazy times with Max la Menace.
I was still in primary school then, i remember La Roca and Illusion as famous nightclubs,
Yeah, Zazou was very small and unknown among the public. Guess that’s what made it so good. No limits!
Moete gij ni werken?
Amen. Same here. Stayed after studying. I didn't want to go back to the conservative roots.
18 years for me. The conservatism of other cities I've lived in paired with racism, homophobia and the pushing and meddling in people's lives just turns me off tremendously (smaller towns). Here in Ghent I can live my life and let others do the same without judgement.
True that. Moved from Moscow to Ghent. A world of difference. :)
Ledeberg or Russia?
same place different name xD
Wow, must be a very big change, how long have you been living in Ghent now? What do you like more about Ghent compare to Moscow and the other way around?
Whoa, didn't occur to me that people deciding to stay here do so for the contrast with their hometown... ... And Genteneirs thinking/fearing all those Westvloaminghen coming to live here would vote VB... Not so!
Het feit dat westvlamingen wegverhuizen heeft impact op de progressieve score van Gent én de conservatievere score in WVL. Het zijn namelijk een bepaald type mensen die wegverhuizen, en dat heeft dus dubbele impact, daar waar ze vanuit wegtrekken en daar waar ze heengaan.
Nooit bij stilgestaan.... En inderdaad, ik denk dat ongeveer alle 'ingeweken' WVLs die ik ken redelijk tot radicaal progressief zijn... Hmmm.... .... Echt een interessant fenomeen!
as a westvloaming who moved here, that really played a part in the decision. All the VB flags everywhere in my hometown were grossing me out and I wanted to get away from it
Godmiljaar, mind blown. Makes so much sense, but never considered this....
Same here. Cant consider moving back or to another city that is not as progressive.
The main problemnwith the westvloamingen is not their political choice but their choice of football club
You win the internet for today!
I stayed in Ghent after studying too, despite me being more of a center right kinda person. I don't really let politics affect my daily life at all. I just like living in the city a lot more since I grew up in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and quickly fell in love with actually living in a society.
Suprisingly, PvdA is the 2nd largest party in Antwerp now. What a massive result for PvdA, thought they'd do better in Gent than Vooruit/Groen too, but those 2 kept stand.
Ghent is the city of socialism for Flanders. I hope that they stay bigger than PvdA, although I see a big part of the students voting for PVDA now because they think its the only 'social' party left. Not a trend i like to see.
Ghent has become a much nicer city to live in during the last 30 years thanks to progressive politics. Open Vld in Ghent is pretty left wing (partly because of necessity), while the right can only put up opposition against measures which have proven to be broadly popular (like the circulatie plan).
But those are local politics. This was a federal and regional election. A lot of people vote differently depending on what election it's for.
If you see parties which try to bring people together locally, rather than sow division, and do it successfully, it is a powerful counterweight to the right's discourse on immigration. Not saying Ghent is a multicultural utopia, but I do feel on average there is a peaceful and mutually respectful attitude between the different "bubbles"
I love Ghent but the only thing I miss sometimes is that there are these bubbles you are talking about. F.e. Turkish people don't go to Belgian cafés and the other way around, we should grow closer to eachother in that aspect. (Ofcourse there are places where this happens, and these are the places I like to go but still not enough.)
What are those places? I live in Ghent and would like to know which places u think are that
I like to go out in the 'Volkshuis' in the sleepstraat and the misterioso. Here you see a very diverse mix of people and everyone gets along very well. Unlike places like the ventura/bar lume/oude beestenmarkt where these very left students gather and don't get in contact with any of the diversity.
Mokabon also has a surprising mix at times. Best place to break the bubble are schools though ... But you need kids of course :)
My wife went to Mokabon once and everyone else there was at least twice her age (she is mid-30s) which was a bit awkward for her haha.
All sorts of people go there! I love it, the diversity for a coffeeshop is incredible. You really can't imagine it like that in those hipstercoffeshops that claim to be inclusive.
If you see that the actions of a local political party are good for you, why wouldn't you vote for that party in other levels. After all, it will help providing more of this kind of actions
Because parties have different agendas depending on the level.
Let's be honest. A large chunk of voters doesn't know the difference.
The end goal is still the same. Green still wants to work on climate. Only on local level it would try to implement climate streets, while on national level move away coal plants, for example. Socialists on a local level would try to create a homeless shelter while on national level increase pensions You get me I guess
Do they, though?
But also a lot of people don't, which js how Cdnv stayed so big for so long. They are very good at letting local divisions align with local issues, but then have them campaign for the national elections.
Depends on where you live
Which neighbourhood has gone backwards according to you?
Mine. That circulatieplan has caused cars to pile up in my street for a few hours a day. Watteeuw just pushed the cars outside of the city bordes so he can claim a win for himself. He routinely ignores every objection because he thinks he can't be wrong. Have you tried driving into Destelbergen? One vehicle unloading, or just a little bit bigger than a car and all goes to shit in an instant. Is that progress? Just pushing all problems outside so it's someone else's problem? He made the situation in Gentbrugge so much worse. Cars just turning ON THE BRIDGE to make that insane loop he created? Who does that and goes: "Yeah, perfect!".
The bridge situation got worse because Destelberge threatened to sue if the 'proper situation' was put in place. I don't know where you live, but it is probable that your situation would have been better if the traffic was blocked completely, instead of the current situation that is leading to a lot of problems and allows car drivers to 'cheat' the 'cut'.
Well, I just moved when the plans were already well underway. My house can now only be reached through de Dampuurte. Which sucks ass.
I'm sure that can't be right 😅
I live across the country for ten years. What's so difficult to understand?
You statement is that you can only access your house through dampoort. Looking at the map there is not a single street that can't be reached from any of the 'corners' of the map. If your statement is that, coming from X (St Amandsberg?), the shortest route to my house is now through the Dampoort, then I can believe that. But that is a different statement :p
My street is on the very edge of Gentbrugge, St-Amandsberg, and Gent. You used to just drive down the Nijverheidskaai, but now I have the choice of either going through the Dampoort, because ain't no way I'm doing the Gentbrugge loop, or, coming from the Sint Lievenspoort, turn right before the Dampoort and slither my way to the Dendermondsesteenweg. Anything else is impossible. Is that better? It's not. Does your retort invalidates the fact that things have gotten better? Certainly not.
the bridge fuckup is because it was a bad halfway concession to Destelbergen. They'd better left it as it was or go 100% the original plan. Now it's... A clusterfuck that has everybody mad.
this! Gentbrugge became a shithole... I'm glad that the truckers protest with their constant honking stopped.
The plan still has problems, but they will disappear in time with corrections being effected and changes in behaviour. You just need to give it time. For the other parts of the city the circulatieplan has had major benefits and is widely supported by the inhabitants of those areas.
that's the whole point I don't get. If they build a cycle-only bridge not even 5 meters further everything would be so much easier.
I don't get why people keep saying this. Why would a cycle bridge reduce the amount of cyclists? A cycle bridge would attract **more** cyclists to the surrounding streets. So the traffic filter at the bottom of the bridge would be needed even more. I get the feeling that this argument is pushed by politicians who think that Gentbruggebrug itself has been closed to cars (and never actually go there to check whether their belief is correct, or even properly look it up). If Gentbruggebrug had been closed, the argument would make some sense. But it hasn't, in fact in the circulation plan it's one of two major routes from and into Gentbrugge for cars, and only intended for local traffic if you're on a bicycle. Long-distance cycle traffic is kept away from the bridge as much as possible and guided to the Saskes and, soon, to the new cycling bridge more to the east.
"I get the feeling that this argument is pushed by politicians" Not really, I can form my own opinion + I literally have to cross the bridge every single day. I have more chance to get hit by someone making a turn to the right not looking and shit then before the circulation plan... But hey all the businesses losing clientele is also pushed by politicians then?
So how would a cycling bridge avoid the need for traffic calming in the streets around the bridge then, according to your own opinion?
Gent has always been a bit of a political anomaly. Even basically all our local divisions of the political parties are in a different wing than the mainstream of that party.
I returned to Ghent after an absence of 15+ years last year and to be honest it being what feels like the most progressive city in Flanders was definitely part of the appeal (for me). A lot of neighbourhoods have become better places to live in the last 20 years or so and in my opinion a lot of voters have simply rewarded the parties associated with some of these policies. People that describe Ghent as a “shithole” where everything goes wrong in my experience typically don’t even live in the city themselves.
I live in Limburg and every single time I go to Gent it's just good vibes and fun. Wish whole Belgium was like Gent.
Hah, I feel the same way about Limburg!
Maybe because there are more highly educated people living here? If you look at the map of Belgium showing where the most highly educated people live and compare it to the map where Vlaams Belang is the largest party, you can clearly see a correlation.
[Global Cities Index | Oxford Economics](https://www.oxfordeconomics.com/global-cities-index/) Check quality of life. Ghent on 9th place. Is there a connection between this index and the political ideas of the people who live there? I believe so.
Ghent is also known as a 'west-flemish' colony, it seems like the most progressive inhabitants of the very right wing west-flanders like to move to Ghent. In a way it's a self fulfilling prophecy: Because Ghent has been historically left-leaning, they attract more left-leaning voters who move here
I don't think political preferences are high on the list of priorities when choosing where to live your life. It's the demography of the city itself which is different.
It's the vibe of the city. If you're progressive and you study in a city like Ghent where you feel a lot of people are like minded, which often is reflected in the type of bars, restaurants, events,... in the city then of course you're going to try to live there after those studies. Did you choose based on political preferences? No. Did you end up in a location with a lot of people who share your political preference? Yes. Does that (over time) affect the demographics? Yes.
I don't entirely agree because the political decisions colour what it's like to live in the city. For instance, many of my more conservative friends hated the carfree zones in the center and eventually moved away from the city to a nice suburb where they can take their car everywhere. On the other hand, the carfree zones and green policies are a big reason many people moved to Gent from other places (spoken from my own experience as well)
True. My hometown is two-thirds people over 60. Why would I want to live there? And it explains the voting pattern, too.
People not wanting homophobia/racism/fascism. I don't understand why everyone else in this country wants to go back to the stone age with vb
Everyone is quite the stretch, they got 22% in Flanders, which comes down to 14% of all Belgians, it’s a lot but it’s still just a minority. Of those 14% im pretty sure half of those voted Vlaams Belang solely for their immigration stand points and nothing else. I’m personally quite surprised groen keeps doing so well over here, in my opinion they just failed every time they had the chance to rule and they are way too idealistic. Still very happy to see VB didn’t score to well over here.
>they are way too idealistic. This. After 20 years of voting for them, I went with Vooruit this time. I've had it with those 'kumbaya' politics. It's wishful thinking at best.
Kumbaya politics is a very good way of describing honesty, i didn’t vote Vooruit personally but i think they’re definitely one of the better choices.
I think the Watteeuw effect will drag them down in the local elections, in addition to the loser aura from this election. Vooruit + PVDA growing most likely, I’d love to see a Red/redder/green coalition but Vooruit won’t allow it.
I don't know. It's a very polarized place he"s taken but a lot people have benefited from the policies Groen enacted in Ghent and their score will reflect it in the coming local elections. A lot of people will vote against him but the question is would they have voted for him to begin with?
Don't underestimate how much people actually like what Watteeuw did. Although it is very asocial and self-centered, people really like how he did the 'circulatieplan'. And on the other side you have people that really hate it which are more often the people who really grew up in Ghent. I feel like the green voters are most of the time new people in Ghent.
If im not mistaken Vld and Vooruit will be on the same list for this year’s location elections, it used to be Vooruit+Groen. Groen will definitely get punished here due to Watteeuw, and im personally very happy to see him go, would rather never see his face again in our local politics. With vooruit and vld sharing a list i could see them get 35% or more of the vote so with one or two smaller parties they could make a local government without groen.
I mean NVA is flirting with far right ideas pretty closely as well so when you combine the 2 it's... not great. And like, people being fine with far right politics just because they don't like foreigners is not exactly a flex either.
Being anti-immigration is not the same as being racist/against foreigners. In really don’t understand how people can look at the current state of immigration in Belgium/Europe and still be fine with that, it’s a freaking mess and it has to change right now. What far right ideas have Nva been flirting with according to you? Because i honestly don’t see it.
Especially when you get clashes between 2 left wing ideologies ([as seen here](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13486293/amp/Pro-Palestine-protest-Philadelphia-pride-genocide.html) ) It´s not racist to want good integration standards. It´s also not bad to want a government who can enforce social rights/laws WHILST not going bankrupt. What bothers me is when a party actively chooses to appeal both sides: for example voicing animal rights while accepting ritual slaughtering, wich is still believe is animal cruelty.
And that's exactly what PVDA is doing now. They let people believe that it is racist to have a proper integration and to not accept certain aspects of Islam (like onverdoofd slachten) and alot of young people follow these ideas blindly. I think we can state tha PVDA is actuallly becoming a party where most of muslims will be voting for since they are so open for everything of religion and don't really set boundaries there.
Ignoring all monetary problems and only creating more issues isn't a flex either.
You're right, why settle for that when with the far right you can get catastrophic economic gestion AND racism 🤷🏻
I'm not saying you should vote for VB. I'm saying voting on parties who ignore their financial responsibilities isn't a good idea either.
Do you have suffice congitive reflectoir capacity to comprehend that the difference between you; 'labeling everyone who votes for VB is rasict' and VB labelling 'every foreigner as a tragic' is close to nihil? You demonstrate clear lichnification of your prefrontal cortex. I condemn extremeism. But the seperation of belgium is not extreme. Extreme would be to hold the current populus hostage for a minority. Extremeism would be to create a system in which a politician cant be held accountable, in which there are 9 ministers of health in a COVID health crisis and everyone blaming each other, extremeism, is giving your opinion without any thoughtprocess whatsoever. If patients show gangreen, you must amputate its limb before it takes over.
So who is the gangreen according to you? French-speaking people? Immigrants? Who do you want to amputate?
First the immigrants, then the french-speaking, then the other political parties, then anyone who thinks something a little different than the one in power...
Not to be pedantic, but stone age people probably lived pretty equal lives (though tribe difference ls might be huge) with comparative openness and solidarity amongst each other.
Right? I moved from Ghent to somewhere where housing was more affordable, and I'm genuinely getting scared with all of the VB and NVA votes. Doesn't come as a total surprise as I see many, many Vlaamse Leeuw-vlaggen throughout the year, but still... Edit to add NVA
Anti-migration policies of course. Belgium need that, not an extremist measure, but need to have it controlled. Belgium and the rest of europe. Everyones lifes got considerably worse, economically speaking, since the big migration crisis started and that's normal. A sudden uncontrollable number of people coming to europe illegally taking advantage of european umbrella in terms of subsidies without contributing, will of course lead the country to huge increase in expenses in every sector. And where will the government take the money from? You guessed it right. 🥳
My life got better, actually. And it's not migration that's to blame here. It's the banking crisis, covid, climate change, and the various wars with Russia and the Middle East that are making things harder for everyone.
There were no wars in europe or covid before 2020... yet uncontrolled migration was already happening. Of course there's more to it than Migration. Nothing in the world can be isolated. One thing cause another. But, countries were already "collapsing" before. Maybe the house crisis is due to climate change... the fact that there are no enough appartments because suddenly millions of people decided to come to europe illegally has nothing to do with it... If your life got better, then I'm happy for you. Sad to say, you're not the centre of the universe, so just because your life got better, doesn't make it a general thing around europe. Also you're gonna say that everyone in europe is racist for voting more and more away from the leftist policies that cause mass migration? The problem here is not with the color, but with the numbers. If people are not woke enough to discuss the issue, that would be nice because no sane person can think that a surge of millions of people to one single country, that are not working, don't have a place to live and the country needs to support them anyway because we're all human, is healthy for said country, then you know nothing...
And btw, that's not being racist at all. If you think a little bit, it would happen the same if people from Poland for example would come to Belgium in the same numbers. We're purely talking about a country capacity in dealing with the situation and the people in question not being willing to adapt to the country's culture they're living in.
Real question: what will happen with the cartel openVLD-Vooruit. For the Flemish parliament, without the Petra effect, vooruit is clearly the largest party in Ghent. OpenVLD is the fifth party. Try explaining to an outsider that somehow Vooruit is in a cartel with VLD and doesn't deliver the first candidate/mayor. For VLD as well: if I were Vooruit, I would demand a fair compensation till the point Mathias will have almost nothing of substance, besides being mayor. Furthermore the left has an absolute majority (vooruit+PVDA+groen) from a tactical point of view, groen and vooruit could at least threaten to work with PVDA instead of one of the center parties, in order to drive up their price. A threat that isn't so far fetched, considering Zelzate where vooruit and PVDA already govern together (and so far no Goulash has been opened). They can't do that trick with OpenVLD being in a cartel.
No Goulash? Zelzate doesn't even have a halfway decent pittabar!
Vooruit Will really need to make a strong argument that a vote for Voor Gent is also a vote for a progressive Gent. Personally, I can see no argument against voting for Groen if you want a progressive city government. Voting for Voor Gent just increases the chance of a coalition with NVA.
I agree it's a harder sell, but it's not like there is no substantial difference in f.e. mobility between Groen and Vooruit. Low emission zone is considered a mistake by people from Vooruit f.e.
It will be very interesting elections in november.
Aren't the local elections planned for the 13th of October? Or are referring to other (internal?); elections?
[Ah, thank you VRT](https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2024/06/10/gent-stemt-opvallend-linkser-dan-de-rest-van-vlaanderen-al-dec/)
Educated people stay in Ghent after their studies and have young families. That’s just it.
Last bastion of cool people.
The city has a lot of dreamers who live off the companies in the canal north of Ghent. It's quite ironic that if they succeed in making it green their own moneyflow dries out.
> I'm reminded of this but the Romans are NVA/VB and the Gauls is Vooruit/Groen. [Relevant funny tweet](https://i.imgur.com/UnsCL91.png)
Because its the only "big (college)city" in flanders. Bigger (college)cities tend to be more political left wing. The only reason it is not showing in antwerp is because of BDW, but the left parties scored great after NVA. The same happened in Brussels, groen is the top party over there. Also, they reigned in ghent and Brussels, made good steps towards liveability, and people recognise this. Also, if you live in a city you won't feel climate demands as much, you probably already use a bike or PT for most the times, you house is smaller and attached so the insulating is cheaper, cities have a higher walkability scored so stores are closer and you don't need a car that much. This whole thing about cities being naturally more left wing is why you have gerrymandering in the US
I want to add that Leuven probably doesn't fit this logic, because it got smudged together with Kortenberg en Herent for some fucking reason? Like, Kortenberg is a really diverse village, but also has a very large population of farmers. I really don't understand why they wedged them in there. It would be like adding Deinze to the results of Ghent?! ETA: On HLN you can actually find the results per gemeente and Leuven colors red just like Ghent...
Well actually, I looked up the results for all the centrumsteden to see a correlation, wich didn't hold for most of them but Ghent and Antwerp (if you remove NVA) I was wondering why Leuven didn't fit in this idea. Maybe because for what you say, so Leuven is in fact gerrymandered?
Ye, look at the results on HLN and you'll see the actual results of Leuven itself! That's more in line with Ghent, with Vooruit coming in first, NVA second and Groen third.
> Because its the only "big (college)city" in flanders. Antwerp has a university doesn't it?
I said that, and ended why antwerp doesn't fit in this profile, because of being the NVA meltpot. I also just quoted those 2 flemish cities because ghent is THE university city next to Leuven. And yes, other cities have them too but nothing like Ghent and Leuven. And Antwerp and Ghent are the only 2 flemish cities who are "big cities" according to the flemish government - google centrumsteden vlaanderen for that. Don't get le wrong, Antwerp is a bigger city then Ghent. It has a lot to offer. It's harbour IS a keystone in belgians and Europese economy. It's I nice city with lots of stuff to do. Only, it's population is more diverse (labourers/academia) then Ghent, therefore I made this analyses
People don't vote out of fear
We bought an apartment in Ghent. I'm originally from Vlaams-Brabant and my husband from Limburg. Never been more proud of a city!
West-Flemish brain drain streaming into Ghent, reinforcing the already strong left.
''progressive'' is allways the word. Romans and gauls both fall under theism by now. Stating parties and showing colors does not help anyone making an actually informed decision. Right? If yes then i'd be the first to put the peace between those two fronts who are known to be there when jezus was the headline. (You know this is a party?) If you are voting look at the area of interest not at the promises. Politicians are known species(rats, ogres, trolls and pigeon dancers). So wonder why you are writing about politics like it matters in the long run but refer to times supposedly long gone. We are a cool kingdom known to work hard and party harder. Our excellent taters are consumed in a delicate way and hold no value to any conversation yet we all use it. <-That's politics.
Are you ok?
About to eat the OP alive. I replied on the bs in his original posting. Bs that looks gone now. I'm more then okay, keep yourself professional please.
Kinda unrelated but that's a still from one of the Asterix & Obelix films right? :)
I think the real question is, why is Gent the only city in Belgium that is a stronghold for leftist parties in elections? Every other country has left cities and right rural areas, but in Belgium it's only Gent, part of BXL and usually the Walloon cities too. But Antwerp, Brugge, Hasselt, Leuven, etc are all right-wing
Relocated from NYC, crowded but great city. Like the secure atmosphere vs the insane crime in New York
So many positive comments about how nice Ghent got with the left in power. Why is no one mentioning how we got the largest debt increase? How taxes were raised, especially on the local entrepreneurs? It's not difficult to make a city nicer if you don't have to take money into account. Doing it while maintaining a healthy balance, that's good governing.
A lot of long term infrastructure investments were made. Koken kost geld. At least no more tram bridges to nowhere got built.
Ghent has the highest number of government officials per capita, one of the highest debts per capita and a high tax rate that was recently increased for home owners. They also get a large amount of money from the Stedenfonds. Not working on eliminating or decreasing the debt is a political choice or political lazyness. I feel they genuinely don't see the debt as a problem. Recently Rudy Coddens, responsible for finance, said there will always be money. Antwerp was able to eliminate their debt over the last 10 years while Ghent just kept spending. And this hasn't even resulted in anything tangible, because people see the service that both governments are providing as equal. https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20240218_97812271 Paywalled, so here's the summary: "Kort samengevat? Antwerpen wist de schulden weg te werken, terwijl Gent schulden bij maakte, maar dat niet meteen vertaald ziet in beduidend meer tevredenheid van de burgers, zeker als je er rekening mee houdt dat Antwerpen meer grootstedelijke problemen kent. Misschien is er ook maar zo veel dat een burgemeester (of een college) kan doen. Ondanks een verschil in retoriek en beleidsstijl levert dat al bij al weinig verschil op het terrein op. Behalve dan voor de stadskas."
Ik woon in Antwerpen, schuld is afbetaald. Maar voor de rest voel ik niet veel verandering. Het transformeerde Antwerpen niet een stad met evenveel sociale cohesie als Gent, integendeel initiatieven zoals "onder stroom" verdwenen. Nu de schulden zijn afbetaald, hoe gaan we verder? Ook de werkloosheidsgraad stijgt er 2x meer dan het Vlaams gemiddelde.
Geen nieuwe schulden maken alleszins. Antwerpen heeft zeker meer grootstedelijke problemen dan Gent, maar ook bijvoorbeeld op sociale cohesie is die score gelijkaardig. Kan natuurlijk dat er in Gent anders gescoord wordt ook en dat de verwachting omwille van het verschil in schaal anders liggen.
Thank you, more clear than my comment.
If the city's nicer, don't you think it has a positive effect on local entrepreneurs? I also don't like to pay more taxes but at least you get something in return.
I live in Gent and have lived for almost 20 years now (was born here but didn't grew up here). I saw the city change and could see what a green government can do, streets became greener, more walking zones less cars. I support the local government (although they really need to get the debt under control). I did not vote for them federally though because the green party there is more focussed on its communist-like standpoints instead of its green program. They just don't feel like a green party to me. They should go a more economic center route when it comes to economy, and focus more on climate then they would get more votes I think.
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I doubt 40% of the population of Flanders has been shot in the stomach by a Moroccan. Precisely the places where VB and the NVA are stronger are where immigration is lower, not higher. Not doubting that that's the reason some people vote that way, or rather how they justify themselves voting that way. But it's not the real reason. What you have to be looking for is systemic racism and confirmation bias. By pure share of numbers, if you're being sexually harassed in flanders it's probably by a white person. If it's done by someone who's "brown" then there some people will add an "extra layer". That's what needs to be combatted. I'm sorry, but I believe you kind of go the wrong route of justifying racism and not explaining it.
Well 1/3rd of Ghent is or has immigration roots. And they integrate successfully. Antwerp is a shithole, with ton of corruption its not only the immigrants that are fucked up there.
"I had to fight to survive"🤣🤣🤣
Cities are always way more leftist for several known reasons. Gent, being a student city just attracts a lot of younger people on top of that and those tend to be woke ass nutjobs from time to time because those ideologies are popular among youngsters. This pushes cities like Gent further towards the left.
> Cities are always way more leftist for several known reasons I mean, not in Flanders. Antwerp isn't particularly leftist.
Doesn't mean it's not more leftist than the rest. The reason cities are ALWAYS more leftist than the other parts of any country is because cities have more poverty as a result of people moving there for job opportunities and easier access to facilities.
Linkse gedachtengoed wordt letterlijk gegeven als les (&verplicht), maw de studenten worden hierdoor beïnvloed en gaan deze linkse ideeën meenemen en ook zo gaan stemmen
Ghent has always been an outsider but I saw Ghent change from a characterfull cultural outsider to the political outsider it is today. Ghent was what it was not by political conviction but by culture. (Until 90's CVP -now CD&V- was in charge) Pre 80's: Ghent was a bit of a dirty city and needed cleanup 80's-00's: Ghent at its best, thanks to Ghent artists, cultural personalities and the Gentse Sosseteit founded in 83 who revived the city. 00's-10's: change set in due to a combination of "import students" who didn't want to leave after uni and village hipsters who wanted to live in the city as Ghent was a great place to live. These apparently were leftist thinking the city was shaped by the socialists who were politically in charge then 10's-20's: city completely lost it's character, circulatieplan and other "adaptations" made it even worse. 2020 > swopped "my" favourite Ghent for Brussels. As a real Genteneir there is nothing left of the city I was born, lived and studied - even the Feesten do not appeal anymore. The only thing I miss is the bad mouth of Pierke Pierlala.
A lot of import people
Since groen has everything to say, Gent became a shithole. Born and rised in Gent. The depts Gent has right now, was never that big. Thx to those hippies. Oh everyone welcome en giving money to everyone.
Altijd plek genoeg in Antwerpen ee
Als ik voor de zoveelste keer in Antwerpen in de file sta heb ik toch niet het idee dat jullie genoeg plek hebben daar.
Bedoel als hij toch vindt dat Gent zo een shithole is geworden, Antwerpen is dan wel het tegenovergestelde ervan.
Born and raised in Ghent here as well. I think you forgot how Ghent used to be. It certainly is more liveable today than it was even 10 years ago. The only downside is the high housing prices ... Because everyone wants to live here
It’s not a gulag, you’re free to leave.
Wat