Far-right Forza Ninove party’s supporters gathered in the Flemish city of Ninove on Thursday, to march against their party’s exclusion from the local parliament.
Forza Ninove, which is close to the far-right Vlaams Belang, won the 40% of the votes in the November’s local elections.
However, the other parties applied the principle of “no discussion with the extreme far right” and formed a majority excluding the far-right party.
Member of Vlaams Belang Filip Dewinter said: “We are defending our democracy today, it’s important because in our country something like a ‘cordon sanitaire’ exists. That means that one party, that’s Vlaams Belang, whenever we win elections we can’t govern”. He then added “People have voted, one party won the elections, so we have to respect the vote of the people, they have to respect the elections.”
Thursday’s “March for Democracy” coincided with day the local parliament first met after the elections.