We have elections coming up on 9 June, for the European Parliament, the Belgian Federal House of Representatives, and the Flemish Parliament. For two of these my choice is simple: my old friend Sophie in ‘t Veld, who has been a Dutch MEP for twenty years, is running for the European Parliament again, but this time as the lead candidate in the Dutch-speaking Belgian electoral college for the new pan-European political party Volt Europa, and another friend, Bianca Bäumler, is also on that list. The lead Volt Europa candidate in the French-speaking Belgian electoral college, Suzana Carp, is also a friend, as is Rick Zednik, one of the candidates in Slovakia, but I can’t vote for them.
Volt Europa also has candidates for the Flemish Parliament in the Flemish Brabant constituency, where we live, and one of them is a chap who I know very vaguely back in Livejournal days. He is not in a position where he is at all likely to get elected, but I’ll give them my vote at regional level too. They are a small new party, and their chances in either the European or Flemish Parliaments are not brilliant, but I’m backing them anyway. A sceptical colleague said to me, “Yeah, Volt is a party full of people like you, Nicholas”; personally I’m not sure that that is such a bad thing – people like me deserve to be represented too!
However, Volt were not able to get candidates registered in our district for the Belgian Federal House of Representatives (they do have lists in Brussels and Antwerp), so for what is arguably the most important election, I consider myself a free agent. Back in 2009, my first election as a Belgian citizen, I asked all of the parties about their position on the burka ban, and voted accordingly. I also asked the local parties about local issues for the municipal elections in 2012 (with a late response) and 2018.
For the last Belgian elections I used online resources to help me decide. This time I’m going to take a number of factors into account, but one important issue for me is the extortionate charges levied by bpost, the Belgian postal service, on parcels sent here from outside the EU. I have therefore written to all of the political parties who have candidates in Flemish Brabant (except for the extreme right Vlaams Belang, who will never get my vote anyway) as follows – I sent the Dutch version, but am providing the English here for clarity:
| Hello, | Hallo, |
| I have been a Belgian citizen since 2008, and I am deciding how to vote in the coming federal elections. | Ik heb sinds 2008 de Belgische nationaliteit en ik beslis hoe ik ga stemmen bij de komende federale verkiezingen. |
| One issue is of particular concern to me. I collect old books – not expensive ones, but usually in English and usually for sale from small businesses in the UK. Many of these businesses are not registered for the EU Import One Stop Shop (IOSS), because they have lost their trade with the EU since Brexit. | Eén kwestie baart me bijzonder veel zorgen. Ik verzamel oude boeken – geen dure, maar meestal in het Engels en meestal te koop bij kleine bedrijven in het Verenigd Koninkrijk. Veel van deze bedrijven zijn niet geregistreerd voor de EU Import One Stop Shop (IOSS), omdat ze sinds de Brexit hun handel met de EU zijn kwijtgeraakt. |
| If the seller is not registered for VAT, then I must pay €18.50 for “douaneformaliteiten” if the value of the book is less than €150, and €39 if the value is more. Usually the value of the book is less than €10, so I am paying almost twice its value just for the douaneformaliteiten. | Als de verkoper niet btw-geregistreerd is, dan moet ik €18,50 betalen voor douaneformaliteiten als de waarde van het boek minder dan €150 is, en €39 als de waarde meer is. Meestal is de waarde van het boek minder dan €10, dus alleen al voor de douaneformaliteiten betaal ik bijna het dubbele van de waarde. |
| Because of EU rules, all EU countries must make some charge for this service, but bpost charges more than any of the neighbouring countries. Post NL charges €13. Post Luxembourg charges €5 if the value of the parcel is less than €22, and €15 if it is more. La Poste in France charges a maximum of €8. Deutsche Post AG charges €6.50. | Vanwege de EU-regels moeten alle EU-landen een bepaald bedrag vragen voor deze dienst, maar bpost brengt meer kosten in rekening dan alle buurlanden. Post NL rekent €13. Post Luxemburg rekent €5 als de waarde van het pakket minder is dan €22, en €15 als het meer is. La Poste in Frankrijk rekent maximaal €8. Deutsche Post AG rekent €6,50. |
| In addition, the service that we get from paying these fees is very poor. I have sometimes had to pay douaneformaliteiten for gifts, although they are supposed to be exempt. One of my parcels was lost between customs and bpost for six months. | Bovendien is de service die we krijgen als we deze kosten betalen erg slecht. Ik heb soms douaneformaliteiten moeten betalen voor geschenken, terwijl die vrijgesteld zouden moeten zijn. Eén van mijn pakketten is zes maanden lang verloren gegaan tussen de douane en bpost. |
| Bpost is now losing my business, because I now find it easier to ship my UK purchases to friends in the UK and pick up from them in person when I cross the Channel. | Bpost verliest nu mijn zaken, omdat ik het nu gemakkelijker vind om mijn Britse aankopen naar vrienden in het Verenigd Koninkrijk te sturen en ze persoonlijk op te halen als ik het Kanaal oversteek. |
| What is your party’s stance on the exorbitant fees charged by bpost? | Wat is het standpunt van uw partij over de exorbitante kosten die bpost aanrekent? |
Bpost is of course a private company, but its majority shareholder is the Belgian federal government, and even if that were not the case, the Belgian federal government can act to regulate permissible charges. I’ll report back in due course on what, if anything, I get from the parties. (I should add that I complained about this in 2021 to one of our current local MPs, who replied two months later telling me to lump it; her party therefore starts at a disadvantage for getting my vote.)
Incidentally, of the ten parties with federal election lists in Flemish Brabant (other than Vlaams Belang, who I didn’t check), six had central email addresses, three had online forms and one had no means of contact at all. Of the ten lead candidates, seven had public email addresses, one had an online form and I contacted the other two via LinkedIn messaging.