“I do not want to be seen just as someone from the Jewish community. I am there for all members of the party and for all Flemish people. I will now fight like a real Flemish Lion.”

BRUSSELS—For the first time a practicing Jew will seat in the Belgian federal parliament.

38-year-old Michael Freilich, former editor-in-chief of Joods Actueel in Antwerp, a Jewish magazine founded by his grandfather Louis Davids, was elected on the N-VA (New Flemish Alliance) list, a right-wing Flemish nationalist party which maintained his first position in Flanders following Sunday’s general election which in Belgium was couples to the European elections.

Freilich reportedly received nearly 13,000 preferential votes from within and outside the Jewish community of Antwerp.

When he announced earlier this year that was stepping into politics after twelve  years editing his magazine,  during a press conference together with NV-A leader and Antwerp Mayor Bart De Wever, Freilich explained that this prty ‘’fits in with many of my beliefs, which values  Enlightenment in a common Judeo-Christian tradition, without imposing obligations on others.’’

He also explained that he wanted ‘’to do something about different areas that concern me, including: immigration, terror and extremism.’’ Regarding terror, he asked:  “Is it normal that heavily armed soldiers still have to guard our schools and streets?”  Freilich also sees extremism as an ailment these days. “As a Jew, it is not always easy to walk around in the street with a kippa.”

He said he does not want to stand up for the Jewish community in the elections. “I do not want to be seen just as someone from the Jewish community. I am there for all members of the party and for all Flemish people. I will now fight like a real Flemish Lion. ”

“The chaos with uncontrolled migration is no longer possible,” Freilich said. “The Marrakesh Pact has been the deciding factor for me. I advocate a controlled migration to Canadian model.”

At the press conference, chairman Bart De Wever was very pleased with the arrival of Freilich. “The Jewish community is important to our city,’’ he said.

Although NV-A remained the first party in Flanders, the real winner of Sunday’s election was the etreme-right and separatist Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party which finished second with about 20 percent of the vote – a surge of over 14% compared to five years ago. The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) would remain the largest party in Belgium with around 28 % of the Flemish votes, a drop of almost 5 percentage points.

“This election was about our people, and our people have to come first,” President of Vlaams Belang Tom Van Grieken in his victory speech.

In the southern, French-speaking part of the country, Wallonia, early results suggest Michel’s Reformist Movement (MR) is neck-and-neck with the previously dominant Socialist Party to become the largest at around 23-24 percent, followed closely by the Green party at 21 percent.

In Brussels, the Flemish and French-speaking Greens are jointly expected to become the largest group.

The extreme-left Worker’s Party also made big wins with around 8 percent of votes nationally.

Vlaams Belang has so far been excluded from ruling coalitions at all levels of government in Belgium due to the so-called cordon sanitaire, which aims at excluding  the extreme-right from any political majority in the country.

N-VA leader Bart De Wever, however, did not exclude the possibility of breaking the embargo around Vlaams Belang in a speech on Sunday evening.

“I never subscribed to the ‘cordon sanitaire‘ and I was never a fan of it. But I have never been a fan of the party’s style, of some of its exaggerated figures and positions. These two things, which were clear yesterday, are still clear,” he added.

The results of Belgian elections will make it particularly complicated to form a government coalition between French and Flemish-speaking political parties.