Partij van de Arbeid van België / Parti du Travail de Belgique (Political party, Belgium)
PVDA / PTB
Keywords: partij van de arbeid van belgië | parti du travail de belgique |
Flag of the PVDA / PTB, six versions - Images by Tomislav Todorović, 22 July 2018
Presentation of the PVDA / PTB
Flags of the PVDA / PTB
Former flags of the PVDA / PTB
Presentation of the PVDA
The PVDA / PTB (Partij van de Arbeid van België / Parti du Travail de Belgique - Workers' Party of Belgium; Dutch-speaking website, French-speaking website) was founded in 1979 as a national, bilingual party (that is, operating on whole Belgium under two names). Originally established as a Communist party with a strong Maoist orientation, the party was reorganized in 2008, adopting a "less sectarian" orientation.
Currently presided by Peter Mertens, the party claims a membership of c. 7,000. The general elections held on 14 October 2012 were a breakthrough for the party at the regional and municipal levels, increasing its representation from 16 to 52 seats.
The party got most of its seats in the Province of Antwerp (Provincial Council [2], Municipal Council of Antwerp [4, incl. Peter Mertens]; District Councils of Berchem [1], Borgerhout [4, Zohra Othman being the first member ever of the party to access the executive], Deurne [3], Hoboken [4], Merksem [1] and Wilrijk [1]). The other seats were won in Brussels (Municipal Councils of Molenbeek [1] and Schaerbeek [1]), East Flanders (Municipal Council of Zelzate [6]), Hainaut (Municipal Councils of Charleroi [1], La Louvière [1] and Mons [1]), Liège (Provincial Council [2]; Municipal Councils of Flémalle [1], Herstal [4], Liège [2] and Seraing [5]), and Limburg (Municipal Councils of Genk [3] and Lommel [1]).
In June 2015, the former flag was changed (flags for sale, flags for sale): the star, its points no longer rounded, is now placed in center fly, the arrow upon star is in green color and the inscription, now in uppercase letters (same typeface), is placed beneath the star. In the bilingual version, both abbreviations are in a single row, with a middle dot between them: "PTB-PVDA".
At the same time, an alternate flag design was also introduced (flags for sale, flags for sale), with the arrow in red color and field divided into eight segments, the partition lines being the extensions of the star's edges. Starting from the center hoist and running clockwise, the segments' colors are: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, dark blue, light blue and purple. This flag also has Dutch, French and biilingual versions.
At May Day demonstrations in 2015, the previous flags were still exclusively used. The new ones have replaced them in a very short time (photos, photos) and there are very few, if any, examples of old and new designs' joint use.
Tomislav Todorović, 22 July 2018
Flag of the PVDA / PTB, three versions - Images by Tomislav Todorović, 18 August 2013
The former flag of PVDA / PTB was red with a white star in canton (photo). The star is tilted to the upper left corner and charged with a yellow arrow pointing to the hoist. The party's acronym is written in white letters in the flag's lower right corner, in three versions:
- Dutch and French: "pvda" over "ptb" (photo);
- Dutch: "pvda";
- French: "ptb" (photo).