New party in Belgium demands empty parliamentary seats for blank votes

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) – A newly founded political party in Belgium wants blank votes to be represented with empty seats in the Federal Parliament.

The Blanco party aims to establish a presence across the country with just one point on its agenda: blank votes should lead to empty seats in the legislature, public broadcaster VRT reported on Tuesday.

The party argues that blank and invalid votes, which are counted but not taken into account in the distribution of seats, should be represented accordingly.

“We will be present in the chamber and abstain from every vote that is cast there. We will also not participate in committees and only vote for our own bill,” Laurent Ryckaert, one of the party’s founders, told the broadcaster.

He stressed that one of the reasons for founding the party was to protest Belgium’s “current political culture.”

“I want to protest against the current political culture, but I do not want to do that by voting for a party that does not deserve my support,” Ryckaert said.

He said Blanco will disappear from the political scene once its objective – representation of the unrepresented – is fulfilled.

“Once our goal has been achieved, the Blanco party no longer has a reason to exist. We will leave the parliament immediately and our seat there will effectively remain empty,” he said.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​