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Wim Van Lancker

@wimvanlancker.be
3K followers 559 following 488 posts

Professor sociaal beleid / Professor Social Policy @ KU Leuven, Belgium. Research on poverty and inequality, social and family policies, and the welfare state. www.wimvanlancker.be

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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 10h
De Vlaamse regering besliste dat er bespaard wordt op het groeipakket. Ze bespaart daarmee op de periode die het cruciaalst is voor het verdere leven (de geboorte) en op de periode die het duurst is voor gezinnen (de jongvolwassenheid). Het zijn vooral de grote gezinnen die daar de dupe van zijn.
standaard.be
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 28/09/2026
Top 10! En zeggen dat ik vlak voor de race Jorgenson nog heb gewisseld voor Van Aert. 🫠 Blijft er toch vanaf! #TdA26
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 27/09/2026
#TdA26
static.klipy.com
Tourdambiance Tda: Ik Ben Eraan Geweest
ALT: Tourdambiance Tda: Ik Ben Eraan Geweest
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 27/09/2026
Van der Poel of Van Aert? #TdA26
static.klipy.com
Jack Donaghy: I Don't Know What To Do
ALT: Jack Donaghy: I Don't Know What To Do
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 26/09/2026
Zeg niet: we besparen €1.311 op de kap van gezinnen met een pasgeboren kind. 🤔 Zeg wel: we investeren in een Vlaams Groeifonds waardoor onze begroting er nú beter uitziet en we de gevolgen ervan 18 jaar voor ons uit schuiven. 🥰 #VlaamseRegering #begroting
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 18/09/2026
Sammy Mahdi wil een indexsprong om de begroting te stutten, maar alléén voor werklozen. Dat zou erg kortzichtig zijn: het lost geen enkel probleem op, en dreigt de kosten nadien nog groter te maken. Deze ochtend 🥱 mocht ik op Radio 1 even uitleggen waarom dat zo is. 👇 www.vrt.be/vrtmax/luist...
vrt.be
Een indexsprong, enkel voor werklozen, zoals CD&V-voorzitter Mahdi voorstelt: wat zou dat betekenen voor de werklozen? | VRT MAX
Sammy Mahdi, de voorzitter van CD&V, heeft een begrotingsballonnetje opgelaten over een indexsprong. Als de regering opnieuw zo'n sprong zou overwegen, dan kan dat enkel voor de werklozen, klinkt het....
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 15/09/2026
What good are the social sciences? Welcome address at the 2026 graduation ceremony of the KU Leuven Faculty of Social Sciences. About a high-profile plagiarism case, questions that weren't answered, and the importance of academic standards. Full clip 👇 www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt6K... #graduation
youtube.com
What good are the social sciences? Welcome address at the 2026 graduation ceremony
YouTube video by Wim Van Lancker
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 14/09/2026
'What good are the social sciences?' I get that question a lot, and I usually mumble something about understanding society. But it's not a great conversation starter. At the KU Leuven Faculty of Social Sciences graduation ceremony, I tried to give a more concrete answer. Here's what I said. 🧵
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 11/09/2026
Werklozen verder de duimschroeven aandraaien vind ik nu niet meteen een christelijke gedachte, Sammy Mahdi. Ik stel voor dat we ze meteen aan het kruis nagelen. 🙄
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 09/09/2026
Top 40! The only way is up in my first grote ronde zeg. Ik vind het dan tóch nog leuk! #TdA26
static.klipy.com
I Think You Should Leave: Turbo Time Dance
ALT: I Think You Should Leave: Turbo Time Dance
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 05/09/2026
Examens aan het verbeteren.
static.klipy.com
PC Principal Triggered
ALT: PC Principal Triggered
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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 03/09/2026
Part 2. There is no bottom to Ariely's malfeasance. The Arday tragedy is so raw now the comparison is unavoidable. Ariely's fraud cost millions. Books were sold, careers altered. People and organizations changed policies and practices based on his fake results...
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David Brady @davebrady72.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Some one revealed to be a serial fraudster like Ariely (allegedly) surely will face the exact same level of public scrutiny as people like Claudine Gay. Surely he will be forced to resign… Surely, the right wing media and Twitter will vigorously go after him… dukechronicle.com/article/duke...
dukechronicle.com
‘Insane data’: Duke professor Dan Ariely accused of additional research fraud
New evidence released Monday shows that Dan Ariely, professor of business administration in the Fuqua School of Business, likely tampered with or fabricated data in an influential research paper from ...
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 01/09/2026
The emissions scenarios underlying the next generation of climate model runs that will be featured in the upcoming IPCC 7th Assessment Report are officially out! I have a big new explainer over at Carbon Brief taking an in-depth look at what they mean and whats changed: www.carbonbrief.org/...
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Pat Hastings @ophastings.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
How well can we predict which children will end up poor adults or rich adults? Or how much education they'll earn? In a new working paper, @zparolin.bsky.social and I show the predictability of life outcomes depends on the country and outcome. www.inet.ox.ac.uk/publications... Highlights below! 🧵👇
Title: Rags or Riches? Predicting Life Outcomes from the Birth Lottery Across Five High-Income Countries

Authors: Orestes P. Hastings and Zach Parolin

Abstract: The stratification of life outcomes is a central concern of sociology, but to what extent can adult outcomes be predicted from childhood circumstances? Although decades of research have identified important family and socioeconomic factors associated with mobility and attainment, these models explain only a modest share of individual variation in outcomes. Using harmonized longitudinal data from the Cross-National Equivalent Files (CNEF) and an ensemble of machine-learning models, we estimate the predictability of adult outcomes in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and South Korea. Predictability varies substantially across outcomes and national contexts: educational attainment is more predictable than economic outcomes, poverty is far more predictable in the U.S., and income mobility is substantially less predictable than overall attainment outcomes. Additional U.S. analyses show that adding race, wealth, parental incarceration, and other variables improves predictions only slightly. We further show that predictability captures a distinct dimension of stratification not fully captured in other traditional measures of mobility, inequality, and opportunity. Together, these findings provide new insights into where and how the birth lottery most strongly shapes life chances.
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Ashley @ashleysays.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Chefs kiss
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 27/08/2026
Our session on the Matthew effect in social policies has kicked off! First presentation by Hanne Lamberg on cumulative adverse experience amongst children in Finland. She finds that level remained stable but the risk became much more concentrated amongst disadvantaged households. #ESPAnet2026
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 25/08/2026
Tomorrow, ESPAnet kicks off in wonderful Lisbon. It's the annual highlight for social policy researchers all over Europe. I’ve already taken some time to familiarize myself with local customs. Tomorrow: more post about food I mean research findings! #ESPAnet2026 @amilcarmoreira.bsky.social
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Das Mag @dasmag.nl · 19/08/2026
'Lelijke mooie wereld' van Giselinde Kuipers verschijnt 16 september! medium.com/das-mag/hoog...
medium.com
Hoogleraar Giselinde Kuipers doet onderzoek naar schoonheid en begon aan een manifest
Toen werd ze zelf ziek — en werd het persoonlijk
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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
After being *invited* to write an op-ed, a couple days of back-and-forth, and editing, a major UK media outlet has just decided not to publish the op-ed because they are afraid of legal threats from Cofnas
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Adam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I had not some across this before, but if you want an example Nathan Cofnas’ scholarship, this is a doozy. Again I say, being sacked is not the problem; being recruited in the first place is what deserves scrutiny.
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Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Last week, Byline Times published a piece providing some of the evidence showing the marathons happened. The mainstream media didn't pick up on either of these pieces. 12/ bylinetimes.com/2026/08/18/...
bylinetimes.com
The Peter Thiel-Linked Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday
The media's coverage of the academic's life was fuelled by the campaign of an established far-right network
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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
look at how seamlessly they transitioned from “we must evaluate Arday’s life and work no matter the motives of his critics” to the opposite position: defending Cofnas because of his critics’ motivations, no matter the quality of his work
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Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Hello, human geneticist here. There is no scientific basis for attempts to define people in terms of “good” or “bad” genes - these are discredited views in service of racist ideologies. For consensus & concerns of experts in our field, see e.g. this 2020 statement from @geneticssociety.bsky.social:
Statement from the American Society of Human Genetics in 2020, countering the myth of "good genes". It reads as follows:
"Genetics demonstrates that humans cannot be divided into biologically distinct subcategories or races, and any efforts to claim the superiority of humans based on any genetic ancestry have no scientific evidence. Moreover, it is inaccurate to claim genetics as the determinative factor in human strengths or outcomes when education, environment, wealth, and health care access are often more potent factors. There is no factual basis for attempts to define communities or regions of people with "good" or "bad" genes and a century of science has debunked such claims, which can feed discredited views and racist ideologies. Unchecked, unethical application of false genetic "theories" have resulted in past atrocities from forced sterilizations to the Holocaust and can still fuel unethical social policies worldwide today. Over the decades, our field also has reflected on its own role in such now-condemned ideas, and we speak out vocally as a community and as individuals to combat their resurgence.
We must protect and advance the ethical use of genetics and genomics knowledge for the profound good it can realize, including better, more precise healthcare that leverages what we are discovering about human genetic commonality and diversity. The human genetics community dedicates itself to this goal each day, and today we are improving and saving hundreds of thousands of lives. As the ASHG community focuses on realizing the benefits of human genetics and genomics research for people everywhere, we also urge societal attention to address profound educational, economic and health inequalities that fuel differences in human experience and well-being. By pursuing all of these activities, humans can celebrate our common heritage as one people, embrace and fully tap our valued diversity, and help achieve optimal life outcomes for all."
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 21/08/2026
Ik bezwijk nu al onder de druk 😱 #TdA26
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Cofnas here opining that lady professors’ lady parts and lady feelings mean that we can’t actually do the work as well as our strong manly straight men colleagues; we must instead resort to manipulation and emotions
College, Cambridge, in 2024. In blog posts, he had said that, in a meritocracy: “Blacks would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.” In a piece titled “Don’t Scapegoat Women”, published in January this year, Cofnas claimed “women but not men can get people fired by pointing and crying”.

He added: “To meet de facto quotas, employers have had to reach deeper into the pool of less qualified female candidates. For obvious reasons, affirmative action hires often have a chip on their shoulder. Many of them turn to social justice activism to distract from the fact that they aren’t as good at their job as the straight white men who earned their position based on merit, or weren’t hired at all.”
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 21/08/2026
What's your take, @dieworkwear.bsky.social ?
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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
lol
Nathan Cofnas tweet: I was just suspended by Ghent University. They will almost certainly fire me.

The decision was made by rector Petra De Sutter, a former leader of the Green Party.
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 19/08/2026
But Bertie, if it takes you months to prompt a text that matches what you really think and feel, why don’t you just write the text yourself? 🤔 Is that really the kind of exemplary AI use that *checks notes* ...'thought leaders' should be promoting in @nature.com? www.nature.com/articles/d44...
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 17/08/2026
Dit. 👇 De aanwerving van Jason Arday was geen teken dat DEI universiteiten verblindt in hun aanwervingspolitiek, hij was een symbool om het gebrék aan diversiteit te maskeren.
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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
we were going to do an IBCK episode on Arday, but it would feel too cruel and gawky now, so i'm just going to thread some of my thoughts on the whole affair
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 17/08/2026
"Anaesthetist Joachim Boldt, the most retracted man on earth, whose fraudulent work almost certainly killed people, has had far fewer articles written about his papers since 2009 than Arday had in the space of a fortnight." "The university failed miserably and allowed this travesty to take place."
gidmk.substack.com
The Jason Arday Saga Is Terrible And Everyone Involved Should Be Ashamed Of Themselves
The whole thing makes me furious
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 06/08/2026
Niets hiervan hoeft te verbazen. De 'berekening' dat een derde van wie zijn uitkering verloor werk zou vinden en een derde leefloon zou krijgen, was uit de lucht gegrepen. De regering-De Wever wilde een symbooldossier, maar was niet geïnteresseerd in een béter beleid. vrtnws.be/p.93X3l3Wv3
vrtnws.be
Ruim helft van werklozen die uitkering verliezen, vraagt leefloon aan | VRT NWS Nieuws
Van de ruim 99.000 mensen die dit jaar hun werkloosheidsuitkering geschrapt zagen, heeft 53 procent een leefloon aangevraagd bij het OCMW. Dat schrijft De Tijd op basis van nieuwe cijfers over de inst...
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 02/08/2026
Doe eens mee met Tour d'Ambiance, zeiden ze. Het zal leuk zijn, zeiden ze. 😵 #TdA26 @go.tda.zone
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 30/07/2026
Allereerste #TdA26 ploeg samengesteld. Zo voelt dat dus.
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Ron Ogden: So Many Options, So Much Anxiety
ALT: Ron Ogden: So Many Options, So Much Anxiety
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 28/07/2026
Ik ben zo verbaasd dat ik even moet gaan liggen. 🫠 www.standaard.be/politiek/ene...
standaard.be
Energiesteun voor kilometervergoeding is “te complex” voor bedrijven
Drie maanden nadat de federale regering 60 miljoen euro heeft voorzien voor hogere kilometervergoedingen bij bedrijven, blijkt dat er amper belangstelling is.
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FX Coudert @nanoporous.net · 17/07/2026
Ironically, as @mart1oeil.eu showed, there are telltale signs that the piece was edited with ChatGPT: many links include "?utm_source=chatgpt.com" If even Science editorial team cannot afford good human editing, that's worrying
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 15/07/2026
Voor de avondploeg: ‘Een franchise van 500 euro voor medische kosten? Dat is geld besparen op de kap van de meest kwetsbaren’ - www.knack.be/nieuws/belgi...
knack.be
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Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality @stone-lis.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
"Is Income Inequality on the Rise Everywhere?" Reviewing evidence from 138 countries, this new WP argues that two facts coexist: income inequality remains unacceptably high in many countries, yet from 2000 to 2020 inequality was more often declining or stable than increasing. bit.ly/3T4weOQ
Text of abstract
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 14/07/2026
Is there even *one* episode of Black Mirror that hasn't become reality yet? 😬
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 27/06/2026
Ge kunt zo hard gaan als ge wilt, alleen tesamen keert het tij. Die wijsheid van Zwangere Guy geldt voor het verleden én voor de toekomst van onze welvaartsstaat. De sleutel ligt bij de middenklasse, en AI zou wel eens de katalysator kunnen zijn van een revival van de sociale zekerheid. 👇
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 26/06/2026
Van de langdurig werklozen die in januari hun werkloosheidsuitkering verloren is 10% aan het werk (al dan niet tijdelijk). De bevoegde minister noemt dat 'bemoedigend'. 🫠 De ambitie is weer niet te schatten. www.standaard.be/economie/sle...
standaard.be
Slechts een op de tien langdurig werklozen heeft een job gevonden na verlies van uitkering
In de liveblog economie brengen we nog meer en sneller financieel-economisch nieuws. Personal finance, bedrijfsnieuws, internationale economie of beurzen: volg hier de belangrijkste updates van de dag.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Excellent. About bloody time. What excuse is there for any other Department -and the PM?
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 18/06/2026
Dat de besparing op studiebeurzen 'nodig is om het systeem overeind te houden' is absolute onzin. Los van inflatie is er helemaal geen zo'n duidelijke stijging van het budget; per student is de investering in studiebeurzen zelfs afgenomen. 🤐 Dit is een ideologische keuze. www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...
vrt.be
Vlaams Parlement zet licht op groen voor veelbesproken besparing op studiebeurzen  | VRT NWS Nieuws
Het Vlaams Parlement heeft het licht op groen gezet voor een besparing op de studiebeurzen. Na maanden van kritiek en weken van uitstel neemt de veelbesproken besparing daarmee de ultieme horde. Volge...
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Klaus Pforr @klauspforr.eurosky.social · 12/06/2026
Interesting paper by Wu, Mark and Hill on effect of Great Recession on US Fertility. Relative declines of 7–30% and absolute declines of 0.013–0.031 births per woman. Shouldn't have spent so much time texting your friends about the economy back then read.dukeupress.edu/demography/a...
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Andrea Howard @drandreahoward.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Okay so I read the whole working paper behind this claim. I’m going to accept the causal analysis as-is and explain why I still don’t think this makes sense. Starting with: the comparison is between counties with vs. without lots of iPhone network coverage, NOT owning vs. not owning an iPhone 🧵
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Golareh Khalilpour @golareh.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
🙌 FOUND IT! I found the post! Now granted, it’s not about fertility rates but still about the tendency to link smartphones to literally every social development:
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Giselinde Kuipers @giselinde.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Nieuws! In september komt mijn boek Lelijke Mooie Wereld uit. Volgens uitgever Das Mag: "een persoonlijk en bevlogen manifest over ons doorgedraaide schoonheidsideaal en hoe we daaruit kunnen – en moeten– ontsnappen." Het - spectaculaire!- omslag is al klaar. dasmag.nl/product/leli...
dasmag.nl
Lelijke mooie wereld - Das Mag
Let op: dit is een pre-order. Het boek valt in september bij je op de deurmat.   Een persoonlijk en bevlogen manifest over ons doorgedraaide schoonheidsideaal en hoe we daaruit kunnen – en moeten– o...
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Wim Van Lancker @wimvanlancker.be · 09/06/2026
Ik hou van de Nederlanders. Hun hart ligt op de tong, hun fietspaden zijn veilig en biljartvlak, en hun beleid is onderbouwd door onafhankelijke experts en instellingen. Het contrast met België en Vlaanderen kan niet groter zijn. Nieuwe column voor @sampolmaandblad.bsky.social 🫡
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Samenleving & Politiek @sampolmaandblad.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
"Een cultuur van evaluatie en transparantie, daar moet je je op organiseren" Waarom @wvlancker.bsky.social van Nederlanders houdt 👇 (www.sampol.be/2026/06/nou-...)
sampol.be
"Nou, schiet er maar op"
Nederland organiseert kritiek op beleid. België vooral nachtelijke onderhandelingen, politieke steekvlammen en achteraf reparatiewerk.
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