Belgian news in brief, 9 January 2006

Continued support for Belang

A website set up to track the development of the extreme-right party Vlaams Belang found a fifth of its readers wanted to vote for the ex-Blok. The site blokwatch.be said it recorded 2.5 million visits during its first year in existence, from around half a million internet surfers. In a survey about the local elections, 21 percent of readers said they intended to vote for Vlaams Belang. Belang had to change its name from the Vlaams Blok after a Belgian court banned it for being racist.

Family planning protest

Around 100 family planning clinic workers demonstrated on Monday morning in front of the Brussels Parliament. They are complaining that cuts to the 2005 budget affected family planning clinics and they fear more cuts could follow this year.

Gas gaffe

Some 100 families in Ghent found themselves without gas on Saturday afternoon after a careless plumber connected a water pipe to a gas pipe. Water ran into the gas network, damaging the system in the area of Dampoort. Technicians had to switch off the gas supply to repair it.

Subject: Belgian news