Forward new name of SP.A

Party SP.A changes its name to Vooruit. The name change will only become official at the end of this year, but has already been approved.

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‘Vooruit will be more than a new name, it will be a movement with a view to the future, with which we want to bring all progressive Flemish people together and participate in politics in a new positive way.’ SP.A chairman Conner Rousseau is already announcing the culmination of his operation to renew and professionalize the socialist party. When he took office ten months ago, Rousseau said he wants to let his party molt into a contemporary movement with an ambitious future project. The name Vooruit should embody that.

‘We want to make the future now with the strength of our past. Together. And then we can only end up with one name and that is Vooruit ‘, Rousseau defends the new name. ‘Forward is a nod to our past, but with a view to the future.’

The word socialism is not in the title for the first time, but Vooruit is indeed a name with history in the socialist party, with the Gentse Vooruit, the socialist people’s house, party room and then arts center, as the best-known example, in addition to, for example, the former socialist newspaper. Come on.

Planned for some time

The moment is a bit strangely chosen: in the middle of formation discussions with Rousseau himself as royal preformer, a corona crisis and without the announcement being dressed up with a conference or interviews. In addition, CD&V chairman Joachim Coens made an unintended attempt to hijack the name last week with an attempt to rebrand the Vivaldi coalition into Avanti, the Italian for Forward.

But the timing, at which the new name would be presented at the first party office in September, had been planned for some time. Last Monday, the SP.A party bureau also approved the new name, and everything has been set in motion to prepare the name change.

The local chapters were also informed and members will be informed tonight. That made it impossible to keep the new name secret any longer. SP.A has also not finished preparing the new corporate identity. Whether the traditional rose will still be in the logo, for example, has not yet been decided. The provisional style is built around the slogan #AllemaalSamenVooruit.

The real name change won’t be able to happen in style until December. ‘That will immediately be the starting shot for a broad consultation round’, says chairman Rousseau, ‘in which we want to involve all progressive Flemish and Brussels residents to discuss the major challenges of our time.’

The name SP.A will eventually have lasted for almost twenty years. In 2001, then chairman Patrick Janssens chose to rename the then SP as SP.A, then also as a result of a renewal operation and a generational change.

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