On the 11th of February the first national congress of the Christian political movement of Dutch-speaking Belgians C’Axent took place in Leuven.

The movement was established in april 2004 particularly to reinforce the Christian character of the Christian-Democratic & Flemish party (CD&V). A mere year later C´Axent decided to become an independent Christian political movement. C´Axent was driven to this decision, by the CD&V stand on ‘gay marriage’ and a fundamentally different approach towards Christian politics. As you may have read in the last edition of the ECPYN Newsletter C’Axent participated in the ‘March for the family’, where 4600 participants demonstrated their support for the unique value of the family and resistance against the proposed law on child adoption by homosexual couples.

These and other actions absorbed so much energy, that the formal structure of the movement wasn’t established yet. It was therefore felt to be necessary to have this first congress to give more attention to the building of the movement itself and the basic political content.

The congress was very well visited and had an interesting and well-balanced program, with a mix of explication, information and interaction. President of the day, Kristien van Gompel – who also joined the ECPYN-congress in Lunteren, Netherlands last summer – succeeded very well in fluently leading the participants from one segment of the congress to an other.

At the start of the congress Peeter Vosu (president of the ECPM) and André Rouvoet (leader of the Dutch ChristianUnion) briefly addressed the congress. In the latter half of the congress groups were formed which will direct their attention to certain areas of policy.

Important speakers were parliamentarian Mark Verhaegen and senator Mia de Schampelaere, another important speaker was the leader of C’Axent, Kris Vleugels, the theme of the congress was: Christians speak out again!

source: ECPYN e-newsletter, www.ecpyn.org