The Liberal Appeal (, LA) was a Flemish conservative-liberal

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

. Founded on 22 March 2002 by the liberal MEP Ward Beysen (1941-2005) as a secession of the VLD, mostly in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. The Liberaal Appèl was first a movement, then became a full-fledged political party on 20 January 2003. It took part, with a limited number of votes (less than 0.5%) under the 5% electoral threshold, at the May 2003 federal elections. On 14 January 2005 Ward Beysen committed suicide, an event that created doubts over the party's future. There were meetings in the following months between the leadership of Liberaal Appèl and another VLD-dissenter, Hugo Coveliers, but to no effect, as Coveliers finally announced his own party VLOTT to break the cordon sanitaire around the

Vlaams Belang Vlaams Belang (; ; VB) is a Flemish nationalist, Eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels Capital Region of Belgium. It is widely considered by the media and political analysts to be on the polit ...

. On 7 November 2005 the party's leader, Jacques Kerremans, met his VLD counterpart Bart Somers in view of an electoral

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...

for the municipal elections of 8 October 2006, and the reintegration of Liberaal Appèl into the VLD began at the local level. On 2 February 2007 the party's leader announced that his party will participate at the open alliance of VLD / VIVANT for the general election of June 2007. This is a further step to reintegration into the VLD.

External links

Guy Huybrechts, Fractie leader in Zandhoven (in Dutch)
Flemish political parties in Belgium Liberal parties in Belgium Defunct political parties in Belgium Defunct liberal political parties Conservative liberal parties 2002 establishments in Belgium Political parties established in 2002 Political parties with year of disestablishment missing {{Belgium-party-stub