May 20, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 17, 1424

BRUSSELS: At first sight things seem to have stayed the same after Belgium’s national elections. Guy Verhofstadt is likely to remain in office as prime minister.

His party, the liberal VLD, can safely continue its coalition with the socialists, who made strong gains in Sunday’s polls. In fact, the new cabinet looks set to be even stronger, observers say.

It can now govern without the support of the Green party, which had occasionally made inconvenient demands on its partners in the former “rainbow coalition” but experienced huge losses in the poll.

Despite the continuity and stability, however, the election results also highlights a profound change in political life. Belgium had been dominated by the Christian Democrats for four centuries until 1999 when they were removed from power by the first coalition government.

It is only now, however, that even Verhofstadt himself seems to believe that the coalition genuinely defeated the Christian democrats four years ago. “The Christian democrats are definitely dethroned,” he registered his relief on winning against them the second time.

The Flemish Christian democrats (CD&V) and the francophone Christian democrats (CDH) in Wallonia in Belgium’s south, slipped to place three after the liberals and the socialists.

The anti-immigration and separatist party again made big gains, recording the tenth election increase in a row in the Flemish-speaking part of the country. The extreme right also won in Wallonia, where the Front National exceeded the five per cent barrier even without a big campaign and well-known political leaders.

The socialists nonetheless recorded higher gains with popular candidates in Flanders and reached second place under the leadership of Steve Stevaert, a former publican.—dpa