What the political landscape will look like in most municipalities after the forthcoming local elections is an open-and-shut case. Parties forge preliminary agreements and, providing there is no major voting behaviour shock, the coalition is already known in advance. This means personal relationships between local politicians are much more important than ideologies and party stances. It is the same story all over the country – except in municipalities with language facilities. Fanny Wille and Kris Deschouwer from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel have done some research into how municipal coalitions are formed. ‘All lists are keen to participate in the municipal governing process. A party may freely opt for the opposition at national level but tends to do this begrudgingly at local level' Another striking observation is that unlike elsewhere in the country national issues actually come into the picture in the Rand. (RK, sep 2012)