Christian democrat leader Joachim Coens to step down early after “dramatic poll result"
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Loading... - Alexandre Aarle
- 10 May 2022
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Mr Coens’ decision to step down came after his party polled just 8.7% in an opinion poll carried out on behalf of VRT News and the daily ‘De Standaard’. The party that once dominated politics in Flanders is now the 7th most popular party, behind the far-left PVDA. What’s more, the party's score in our poll was 6.7 percentage points down on the party’s performance at the last election in 2019.
Speaking on Friday evening Mr Coens told VRT News that "This poll is dramatic for us. It is especially painful for our party activists that work to spread the Christian democrat message every day on the ground. I hadn’t expected a good poll, the polls haven’t been good for some time, but now it is extremely clear”.
Mr Coens added "I will put forward a proposal at Thursday’s meeting of the party’s executive committee to hold early leadership elections. I don’t think that I should be a candidate”.
Sammy Mahdi to stand
One man that will be standing for the party leadership is the Federal Secretary of State responsible for asylum and migration Sammy Mahdi. Mr Mahdi lost out to Mr Coens the last time CD&V held a leadership election. Could it now be a case of second time lucky?
In an interview with VRT Radio 1’s morning news’ morning news and current affairs programme ‘De ochtend’, Mr Mahdi said "Yes, I’m a candidate. Yesterday I received messages from a lot of people asking me to stand. The members of CD&V must decide who leads the team”. Read More...
