The purple-green government reverses course on political rights for military personnel

Military personnel will not be able to stand as candidates in regional, federal or European elections. The Parliamentary Committee for Defence rejected the proposal by the N-VA on the matter. In a first reading, however, a majority still approved the proposal. “We can only conclude that the so-called ‘new political culture’ apparently mainly results in Groen, Open VLD and sp.a now having to retract.”

To this day, Belgian military personnel are not allowed to stand for election. Military personnel with political ambitions have been welcome in local politics since an earlier reform of the N-VA in 2017 and were allowed to stand in the municipal elections of 2018 thanks to this change.

Compromise shelved

The N-VA wanted to extend this to the parliaments and ensure that military personnel were given full political rights. After months of debates in the federal parliament, a compromise was reached in which a coalition of N-VA, Groen-Ecolo, Vlaams Belang and sp.a rallied behind a proposal. On 29 July, a vote was held in which the proposal was approved. Unfortunately, PS then asked for a second reading and an additional opinion from the Council of State, resulting in it being shelved.

Groen reverses course and even criticises its own additions

That opinion expressed some reservations about the additions that Groen/Ecolo made to the N-VA proposal, but ultimately only asked for a number of clarifications. The N-VA therefore does not understand why the same parties are now voting against the proposal. “What we have seen today is a 180-degree turn of parties that are now part of the government. They stated the opposite of their position a few months earlier without hesitation and even criticised their own additions. There was an agreement, and their vote on this proposal had already been registered once. I had hoped that they would have the political decency to honour this as well, but apparently, the voice of PS in government is louder.”