Which policies will be present for Belgium-France?

The proximity of the elections pushes politicians to take advantage of the broadcast of the exploits of the Devils on a giant screen to shake the hands of a max of voters rather than to go to Russia. Only the King, the Queen and Didier Reynders make the trip for tonight's match.

"I It must be said what is an informed observer of the Belgian political cosmos," he is much more buoyant today for a politician to be on the main square of his village to shake hands than to be seen in a grandstand of a game of the Devils that takes place in the depths of Russia. "

The 2018 FIFA World Cup is exceptional for many reasons, first of all because of our team's track record – that goes without saying – but also because The political agenda is grafted perfectly: think, therefore, more than three months before the municipal elections, elections will be followed by the multiple poll of 2019. In short, at the time where to be seen in tribune even, worse, in a lodge is likened to a privilege the policy of which would happily happen, x is worth staying in the country and taking full advantage of the bargain of fan rallies in front of the Devils to be seen by his constituents.

A well-known mayor says: " We installed a capital in the town, it's overheated, but no way I go anywhere else, it's here in the country that it happens and that I must be, nowhere else. "Everything is said or almost.

That explains the few Belgian politicians in tribunes in Russia despite the exploits of the band at Hazard.

This Tuesday, however, the couple Royal Philippe and Mathilde will travel to St. Petersburg to attend the semi-final against France. The King appreciates football and knows a ray – as evidenced by his recent joke about hamburgers eaten by Eden Hazard, alluding to an anecdote of the Leekens era in 2015. The King and the Queen, so. [19659003] No trace of the Prime Minister Charles Michel on the other hand. He will attend the meeting from the place of Braine-le-Comte, invited by his "friend" Bourgmestre Maxime Daye (MR). And it is timely because Maxime Daye is (also) a cousin of the family Hazard . The Prime Minister, however, almost ended up in the stadium on Tuesday night: the Russian authorities urged him to make the trip as well as Emmanuel Macron. The French President will be in St. Petersburg to encourage "his" Blues and would have liked to see that Charles Michel is in the game.

But it was logistically impossible, they say at 16, rue de la Loi . A NATO summit begins Wednesday and some delegations including Donald Trump's American and Justin Trudeau's Canadian decided to land earlier in Brussels. From Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, informal NATO meetings are planned. For the rest, note that the Prime Minister does not exclude to visit Russia next weekend. And let us add that, anyway, Charles Michel never claimed to be a big fan of football and he prefers wine a thousand times (red) to beer .

You said football fan ? Because it will take one to accompany (politically) the royal couple in Russia. Look no further: Didier Reynders will be there. Crazy football, the Minister of Foreign Affairs saw the World Cup as a kid's dream. From Rostov to Moscow, via Kazan and St. Petersburg, only one of the Belgians was missed. " We still have the right to be proud and defend our colors ", he defends himself when asked if he does not do too much with his yellow black jersey red and his scarves. " The Red Devils are today the best export product of Belgium, we must be there.It is an entire country that is behind them." "On mission in Uruguay, Reynders has moved an appointment with a local minister to be able to follow the meeting of the Belgians against England

Russia, therefore, does not make a recipe among Belgian politicians. The French Minister of Sports Rachid Madrane was in the match of the Devils against Tunisia. But for the rest, it is rather on the side of giant screens and village squares that it happens. Alexander De Croo the vice-premier, has understood and plays the card Devils thoroughly on social networks among others since the visit of Kevin De Bruyne in a school of his last year

In Brussels, the bourgmestre Philippe Close would have made the trip to Russia but the security imperatives pinned him in Belgium – among others since the scuffles around a football game last year. Soccer fan and subscriber of the Sporting d'Anderlecht, Close no longer leaves his jersey of the Devils. He is already working on the fiesta that Brussels will put in place when the team returns to Belgium. And he does it with his colleague, the Alderman deputy Alain Courtois . Fifteen-year-old secretary-general of the Belgian Football Union, the latter decided not to go to Russia, judging the conditions for the granting of the World Cup to this country "too opaque".

One could review the really amateur football policies – those who show up at a stadium including when the national team or their club is not at the top. Among the Greens, there are notably Jean-Michel Javaux, Jean-Marc Nollet and Kristof Calvo while at the cdH, we can certainly place Benoît Cerexhe.

And among the Flemish nationalists of the N-VA, will you ask. Good question that deserves almost a doctorate as they have to slalom between their anti-Belgian community core-business and the patriotic black-yellow-red flare that accompanies the sporting feat of our national team. There is one to whom the case is not a problem – even if yesterday, Monday, there was a rumor that he had gone to St. Petersburg … False, of course. Bart De Wever does not like football, he does not like sports in general – except for the jogging he practices – and is not looking for fame. No chance to see him at a rally to attend a broadcast of the match, besides, he is at a convention in Singapore.

The affair is more delicate for two other tenors of the N-VA: Theo Francken and Ben Weyts . These two are football fans: Leuven for the first and Anderlecht for the second and no doubt they will look more or less discreetly the exploits of the players of the national team. And as the political scientist Dave Sinardet rightly says, " even if it is not very nice for the Flemish nationalists to witness this irruption of pro-Belgian sentiments, the impact on the municipal elections should [19659019] to be limited "