People's Party (Belgium)

People's Party
LeaderMischaël Modrikamen
Founded26 November 2009 (2009-11-26)
Dissolved18 June 2019 (2019-06-18)[1]
Merger ofLiDé
Merged intoChez Nous
HeadquartersAvenue Molière 144
1050 Brussels
Ideology
Political positionFar-right[5][6]
European affiliationAlliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (2014–2016)
International affiliationThe Movement
Colours   Purple, Orange

The People's Party (French: Parti populaire, pronounced [paʁti pɔpylɛːʁ]; Dutch: Volkspartij), abbreviated to PP, was a political party in Belgium. Primarily a French-speaking party, it considered itself to be to the right of the Reformist Movement, the main centre-right party in Francophone Belgium. It was often considered as a right-wing populist[7] party. From 2016 onwards, it was considered as far-right by the Centre de recherche et d'information socio-politiques [fr].[5]

The PP was founded on 26 November 2009 by Rudy Aernoudt and Mischaël Modrikamen, inspired in part by the examples of the People's Party in Spain and the Union for a Popular Movement in France.[8] The PP considers itself to be economically liberal in the European sense of the term. The party's manifesto emphasizes efficiency and disinterestedness in governance, plain speaking, and individual autonomy.[9] The PP aimed to reform the justice system and to strengthen the Belgian federal government relative to the regions and communities.

In its first electoral test, the 2010 Belgian general election, the PP won 84,005 votes (1.29% of the national total) and returned Laurent Louis as its first Member of Parliament for Walloon Brabant. The PP list for the Senate, headed by Rudy Aernoudt, took 98,858 votes (1.53% nationally) but failed to return a Senator. The party also discussed a joint venture with the Flemish Libertair, Direct, Democratisch party, but ultimately the two parties chose not to collaborate.

Aernoudt and Modrikamen had a public falling-out in August 2010. Laurent Louis had publicly supported the policy of Nicolas Sarkozy in deporting Roma people from France. These comments provoked the indignation of both Aernoudt and the leaders of the PP's youth wing,[10] but Modrikamen did not join in their call for Louis to apologize, and Aernoudt was expelled from the party. Aernoudt disputed the legality of his expulsion, and also criticized Modrikamen's call for a "Plan B" (an independent Wallonia-Brussels) as a betrayal of the party's federalist identity.[11] Aernoudt also publicly accused Modrikamen of financial misdeeds.[12] The rupture leaves the future of the party uncertain. The People's Party is supportive of Israel.

Mischael Modrikamen, president of the People's Party, has reiterated after the regional elections in 2012 the interest to offer a partnership with the Flemish party, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), to transform Belgium into a confederal state in 2014.[citation needed]

In 2014 the PP won 1 seat in the chamber of representatives and 1 seat in the Walloon Parliament. The PP reached more than 10% in some cantons. However Mischaël Modrikamen did not get a seat in the chamber of representatives. The PP participated in the European elections for the first time but did not get a seat despite the score of Luc Trullemans.

The party was dissolved by unanimous vote of the party members present on the 18 June 2019 party congress.

Following the dissolution of the part, some former PP members announced their invention to create a new party called La Droite (The Right) and reportedly reached out to Alain Destexhe and his Listes Destexhe party for collaboration.[13] In 2021, former PP members helped to establish and merged remaining PP structures into the new Chez Nous (With Us) party alongside former Listes Destexhe and Reformist Movement members.[14]

  1. ^ "Modrikamen l'a annoncé: Le PP, c'est terminé". Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  2. ^ a b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Belgium". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  3. ^ Pauwels, Teun (2013). Belgium: Decline of National Populism?. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, CES. p. 85. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  4. ^ Alastair Macdonald (24 July 2018). "Belgian lawyer launches Trump-inspired anti-EU movement". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  5. ^ a b "Modrikamen (PP) a basculé à l'extrême droite". La Libre Belgique. February 10, 2016. Retrieved 2022-01-18.
  6. ^ "Le PP de Modrikamen frise l'extrême droite, selon Richard Miller". RTBF. 8 February 2010..
  7. ^ Zulianello, Mattia (2020). "Varieties of Populist Parties and Party Systems in Europe: From State-of-the-Art to the Application of a Novel Classification Scheme to 66 Parties in 33 Countries". Government and Opposition. 55 (2): 327–347. doi:10.1017/gov.2019.21. hdl:11368/3001222. S2CID 200013354.
  8. ^ RTBF (2009-06-11). M. Modrikamen veut lancer un "vrai parti de droite populaire" Archived 2009-06-14 at the Wayback Machine Accessed on 2010-06-17. (in French)
  9. ^ Manifest van de Personenpartij / Manifeste du Parti Populaire Archived 2009-11-30 at the Wayback Machine (in Dutch and French)
  10. ^ "Roms : les jeunes PP se distancient des propos de Laurent Louis". Le Soir (in French). 2010-08-23. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  11. ^ "Aernoudt dénonce le " projet séparatiste " du PP". Le Soir (in French). 2010-08-24. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  12. ^ "Le PP poursuit Aernoudt en justice pour faux et calomnie". Le Soir (in French). 2010-08-26. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  13. ^ "Vers la création d'un nouveau parti à la droite du MR?". 11 July 2023.
  14. ^ Tassin, Stéphane. "Avec "Chez nous", l'extrême droite francophone se trouve un nouveau parti". La Libre.be (in French). Retrieved 2022-12-09.