Izegem is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Izegem proper and the towns of Emelgem and Kachtem. Emelgem was added to Izegem in 1965, Kachtem in 1977. Izegem itself lies on the southern banks of the Mandel, Emelgem and Kachtem on the north. Along the shores of the canal a large industrial zone has developed, which made the three municipalities one urban area. On January 1, 2006, Izegem had a total population of 26,544. The total area is 25.48 km2 (9.84 sq mi) which gives a population density of 1,042 inhabitants per km².
The Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats is a Flemish liberal political party in Belgium. The party has been described as centre-right and has smaller factions within the party that have conservative liberal and social liberal views. The party is a member of the Liberal Group, Renew Europe, and Liberal International.
The New Flemish Alliance is a Flemish nationalist, conservative and Eurosceptic political party in Belgium. The party was established in 2001 by the right-leaning faction of the centrist-nationalist People's Union (VU).
Flanders is both a cultural community and an economic region within the Belgian state, and has significant autonomy.
Jean-Marie Louis Dedecker is a Belgian politician.
Eduard Marie August "Ward" Beysen was a Belgian politician and well-known freemason. He held a degree in Dutch and history teaching, obtained in 1963, in Lier and started his political career in the seventies in the Flemish liberal party, the Party for Freedom and Progress (PVV), which was renamed Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD) in 1992. Ward Beysen – suffering a depression – died by drowning himself in the lake of Fort 6 in the south of Antwerp.
Gerolf Emma Jozef Annemans is a Belgian lawyer, journalist and politician of the Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang (VB) and formerly of its predecessor, the Vlaams Blok. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014, and a city councilor in Antwerp since 2000. He served as a member of the Chamber of Representatives from 1987 to 2014, and as a city councilor in Brasschaat from 1994 to 2000. He was the former leader of the VB from 2012 to 2014, and led the Vlaams Blok and VB parliamentary groups from 1991 to 2013.
Jurgen Pierre Katharina Verstrepen is a former radio and television presenter, a member of the municipal council of Antwerp and a member of the Flemish Parliament. He lives in Wilrijk.
Federal elections were held in Belgium on 10 June 2007. Voters went to the polls in order to elect new members for the Chamber of Representatives and Senate.
Mimount Bousakla is a Belgian politician of Moroccan origin. She started her career as member of the Flemish Socialist Party. On 18 May 2003, she was directly elected to the Belgian Senate by the Flemish electoral college. In 2004, she received the "Stichting Anti-Facisme (SAF) Prijs 2004" "for her efforts and perseverance in the fight against fascism and racial discrimination".
Libertarian, Direct, Democratic is a conservative-liberal, libertarian, right-wing populist Flemish political party in Belgium.
Derk Jan Eppink is a Dutch journalist, politician in the Netherlands, and former cabinet secretary for European Commissioners Bolkestein (1999–2004) and Kallas (2004–2007). In 2009, he was elected to the European Parliament for List Dedecker, and in 2019 for Forum for Democracy. In 2021, he became an MP in the Dutch House of Representatives for the JA21 party, but in 2023 he switched to the Farmer-Citizen Movement.
Lieve Van Ermen is a Flemish politician and cardiologist. She was directly elected to the Belgian Senate by the Dutch electoral college for the Dedecker List with 25,462 preferential votes in the 2007 federal election, which took place on 10 June 2007. From 2000 to 2006, she was a municipal councillor in Kalmthout for the Flemish Liberals and Democrats.
Heidi Rakels is a female retired judoka from Belgium.
Federal elections were held in Belgium on 13 June 2010, during the midst of the 2007-11 Belgian political crisis. After the fall of the previous Leterme II Government over the withdrawal of Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats from the government the King dissolved the legislature and called new elections. The New Flemish Alliance, led by Bart De Wever, emerged as the plurality party with 27 seats, just one more than the francophone Socialist Party, led by Elio Di Rupo, which was the largest party in the Wallonia region and Brussels. It took a world record 541 days until a government was formed, resulting in a government led by Di Rupo.
Andrea Pažoutová-Pokorná is a Czech judoka, who competed in the women's middleweight category. She held nine Czech senior titles in her own division, picked up a total of twenty-four medals in her career, including a bronze from the 2004 European Judo Championships in Bucharest, Romania, and represented the Czech Republic in two editions of the Olympic Games. Pazoutova also trained for TJ Sokol Hradec Králové in her native Hradec Králové under her personal coach, father, and sensei Ivo Pažout.
Federal elections were held in Belgium on 26 May 2019, alongside the country's European and regional elections. All 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected from eleven multi-member constituencies.
Svetlana Alekseevna Galante is a Russian judoka and a sambo practitioner. She is considered to be one of the greatest practitioners of Sambo and is a member of the FIAS Hall of fame.
West Flanders is one of the 11 multi-member constituencies of the Chamber of Representatives, the lower house of the Belgian Federal Parliament, the national legislature of Belgium. The constituency was established in 2003 following the re-organisation of constituencies across Belgium along provincial lines. It is conterminous with the province of West Flanders. The constituency currently elects 16 of the 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives using the open party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2019 federal election the constituency had 942,783 registered electors.
