The Liberal Appeal ( nl, Liberaal Appèl, LA) was a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

. Founded on March 22, 2002 by the liberal MEP

Ward Beysen Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

(1941-2005) as a secession of the VLD, mostly in Antwerp. The Liberaal Appèl was first a movement, then became a full-fledged political party on January 20, 2003. It took part, with a limited number of votes (less than 0,5%) under the 5% electoral threshold, at the May 2003 federal elections. On January 14, 2005, Ward Beysen committed suicide, an event that created doubts over the party's future. There were meetings in the following months between the leadership of Liberaal Appèl and another VLD-dissenter, Hugo Coveliers, but to no effect, as Coveliers finally announced his own party

VLOTT VLOTT is a minor Belgium, Belgian conservative liberalism, right-wing liberal or Fortuynism, fortuynist political party. Its title, ''VLOTT'', is an acronym for "Flemish, Liberal, Independent, Tolerant, Transparent" (''Vlaams, Liberaal, Onafhankeli ...

to break the

cordon sanitaire ''Cordon sanitaire'' () is French for "sanitary cordon". It may refer to: *Cordon sanitaire (medicine), a cordon that quarantines an area during an infectious disease outbreak *Cordon sanitaire (politics), refusal to cooperate with certain politic ...

around the

Vlaams Belang , ideology = , predecessor = Vlaams Blok , position = , europarl = Identity and Democracy , european = Identity and Democracy Party , youth_wing = Vlaams Belang Jongeren , colours = ...

. On November 7, 2005 the party's leader, Jacques Kerremans, met his VLD counterpart Bart Somers in view of an electoral

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...

for the

municipal elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

of October 8, 2006, and the reintegration of Liberaal Appèl into the VLD began at the local level. On February 2, 2007 the party's leader announced that his party will participate at the open alliance of VLD / VIVANT for the general election of June 2007. This is a further step to reintegration into the VLD.

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Guy Huybrechts, Fractie leader in Zandhoven (in Dutch)
Flemish political parties in Belgium Liberal parties in Belgium Defunct political parties in Belgium Defunct liberal political parties Conservative liberal parties 2002 establishments in Belgium Political parties established in 2002 Political parties with year of disestablishment missing {{Belgium-stub