Belgium celebrates an electoral ultramarathon this Sunday: European, national and regional. For the first time, 16-year-olds will be able to elect MEPs to the European Chamber, and there’s something delightful about false linguistic friends that makes them call them «first-time voters» here.
The focus could be on the projections of the Flemish far right and its independence aspirations, and on the rainbow coalitions that will make a government impossible in many months. In the new variant of compromising Belgium. Yet, the one thing we were gossiping about last week was Stephen of Wintera person whose almost no one had heard of it outside of Flanders or from the world of irreverent culture and which we will probably never hear much about again.
And he number eight from the list of the Open VLD, the Flemish liberals whose leader, Alexander de Croo, is now prime minister. De Winter’s grace is not in his position (because it will not appear), in his speech (even if it is singular), but rather appears in the campaign photos, on the posters hanging on all the street lamps, in Internal mesh. The traditional white sleevelesssomething that if the EU was really what its critics say it is, it would have banned and exterminated decades ago.
There are politicians, and in Spain we know it well, who to attract attention when their groups are born put their face on the ballot paper or go out naked saying they don’t care about your clothes. But this is different. There’s definitely a marketing part to it and it was an undisputed success. But his party is not new and occupies a secondary position. The key here is that De Winter is one of ours, or rather one of his. The quintessence of a carefree and easy-going oriental flamingowhat you imagine as it is at home or at any festival with a huge beer in his handthe sixth of the night.
In Le Tout Nouveau Testament, the hilarious film by Jaco van Dormael, Benot Poelvoorde plays God, a boy who lives in Brussels, hates humanity (and especially his wife and daughter) and is not only cruel, vindictive and spiteful in the Torrente, but yes he dresses the same, with clothes taken from the 70s and with those t-shirts they call flamencos Marcelleke. This is Winter’s candidate: absurd humor, lightheartedness and a modern court jester role who likes to have fun, joke, but at the same time dares to raise issues and «a new self-critical vision of politics, a combination of head and heart» with particular attention to mental health. It doesn’t take itself seriously, so we can take everything else seriously.
Look up his band, or something like that, Die Verdammte Spielerei, and you’ll understand. Six white men at war «against boredom, against pessimism, against dullness, against sadness».
The electoral guides say that «l power in Belgium and a little’ like a lasagna: It is composed of several layers and we call its organization federalismAnd the guys from De Winter, with a 20-year career facing the street, are the béchamel sauce: no one orders the dish for the sauce, it’s not what gives the flavor, but it’s what holds everything together and gives meaning to the dish, to society, to the country. Your friend Zonder Schild! Your friend without a shield!
