October 12, 2020
16:28
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Open VLD has dismissed its former Flemish Member of Parliament Lode Vereeck. Vereeck reported this via Twitter on Monday.
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There were already cracks between Lode Vereeck and the Open VLD party top, but the liberals are now breaking definitively with their former Flemish member of parliament. The party’s statutory committee scrapped Vereeck’s membership.
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It is the chronicle of an announced exit. Vereeck has not spared the harsh words for his party in recent months. He did not agree with Open VLD’s choice to join a Vivaldi government. “The party line went completely against my ideals,” he says. Vereeck is an economic right-wing liberal and an advocate of more autonomy for the federal states.
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That caused bad blood at the party leadership, but the last straw for the withdrawal of his membership was the nomination in the provincial council of Vereeck as a director at Hasselt University by Vlaams Belang. Vereeck was voted out, but the break with his party was complete. Nevertheless, the Buysse code says that directors are independent. So they threw me on the door without much argument, ‘he says.
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Vereeck says that he is not sorry that he is no longer a member of Open VLD. He will retain his place in the Diepenbeek municipal council and will be there in 2022 as agreed. He continues his commitment as an independent politician. ‘I do not rule out the possibility of ever joining another party. But a party is only a means to realize ideals and not an end in itself. ‘
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