By Giuseppe De Santis

At the recent local elections in Belgium and Austria, where mayors for small towns were chosen, candidates from anti-immigration parties emerged victorious in both countries, which has left many astonished.

On a significant Sunday, 13 October, in the city of Ninove, a town with 40,000 inhabitants located west of Brussels, a candidate from Vlaams Belang, Guy D’Haeseleer (pictured above), was elected mayor with an absolute majority, which means he doesn’t need to make deals with other parties. This victory reverberated across the political landscape, marking a significant shift in the local power dynamics.

It was a significant win for Vlaams Belang, marking the first time one of its candidates was elected mayor. The party’s leader rightfully argued that the cordon sanitaire (a political strategy used in Belgium and other European countries where mainstream parties refuse to cooperate with certain political parties) was broken following other small-town victories.

In Austria, on Sunday, 20 October, Thomas Prihoda, a candidate for the Freedom Party (FPÖ) was elected as the mayor in the village of Goldworth.

In those elections, nationalist parties targeted small towns and villages, making winning elections easier. They used those victories to spread support in the surrounding areas.

The strategy used by anti-immigration parties in various European countries, such as their recent successes in Belgium and Austria, is having a significant impact on the political landscape. The British Democrats are also embracing this approach, with one example being the stunning Town Council by-election victory we secured in Cambridgeshire earlier this year.

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Featured image courtesy of Facebook – Guy D’Haeseleer