VLOTT is a minor Belgian right-wing liberal or fortuynist

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 political ideology ...

. Its title, ''VLOTT'', is an

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for "Flemish, Liberal, Independent, Tolerant, Transparent" (''Vlaams, Liberaal, Onafhankelijk, Tolerant, Transparant''). It was founded on 23 November 2005 by ex-

Open VLD french: Libéraux et démocrates flamands ouverts , abbreviation = Open Vld , logo = , leader1_title = President , leader1_name = Egbert Lachaert , foundation = 1992 (VLD)2007 (Open Vld) , predecessor = Pa ...

member

Hugo Coveliers Hugo F.V. Coveliers (born 21 February 1947) is a retired Belgian politician and lawyer. He was a member of the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives between 1985 and 1995 and from 1993 to 2003. Since 2003 he has been a member of the Belgi ...

. It participated in a list-cartel with the

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

in the October 2006

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

municipal elections and in selected provincial, municipal and district elections elsewhere in Flanders. Despite the popularity of their founder in Antwerp (13 623 personal votes, 3rd most popular) the shared effort of the cartel-partners did only result in a small 0.5 percent win, with no extra seat in the city-council. In 2007, VLOTT did not participate in the general elections, but their candidates appeared as independents on the Vlaams Belang ballots. Only founder Hugo Coveliers was elected to the Belgian Senate. After Coveliers withdrawal from active politics early 2012 Vlaams Belang stopped its cooperation with the party.Hugo Coveliers stopt met de actieve politiek

De Standaard ''De Standaard'' (meaning ''The Standard'' in English) is a Flemish daily newspaper published in Belgium by Mediahuis (formerly Corelio and VUM). It was traditionally a Christian-Democratic paper, associated with the Christian-Democratic and F ...

(20 January 2012)Hugo Coveliers is niet langer voorzitter van Vlott

(3 December 2010)

Platform

The VLOTT party advocates the independence of

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

Democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...

and individual

liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

are central tenets of its principles. The party opposes

multi-culturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for " ethnic pluralism", with the two terms often used interchang ...

. Many of the party's policies were originally influenced by that of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn and his

Pim Fortuyn List The Pim Fortuyn List ( nl, Lijst Pim Fortuyn, LPF) was a political party in the Netherlands named after its eponymous founder Pim Fortuyn, a former university professor and political columnist. The party was considered populist, right-wing popul ...

party.

References

External links

* *
Official VLOTT Antwerp Campaign website
*
Cartel Campaign website for the joint VLOTT-Vlaams Belang list for the Antwerp elections
Flemish political parties in Belgium Right-wing populism in Belgium National liberal parties Nationalist parties in Belgium {{Belgium-party-stub