With the upcoming European elections and federal and regional elections in Belgium on the horizon, recent polls indicate significant regional variations in voter support for the far right across Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels.
In the Flemish-speaking region of Flanders, the nationalist and pro-independence party Vlaams Belang has emerged as the frontrunner in polls. According to a recent poll by Ipsos-Le Soir-RTL-VTM-Het Laatste Nieuws, Vlaams Belang leads with 27.4% of voting intentions.
Vlaams Belang, founded in 1979 as Vlaams Blok, faced setbacks in 2004 when a court ruled it had violated the 1981 anti-racism law, leading to its dissolution. However, the party was re-established under the current name and gained traction in the 2019 federal elections, becoming Flanders’ second-largest party.
In contrast, in the French-speaking Wallonia region, the Belgian Socialist Party (PS) is leading in polls with 21.3% support, followed by the center-right Mouvement Réformateur (MR) with 20.5%. The far-right party Chez Nous, founded in 2021 and backed by Vlaams Belang, is struggling to gain traction, receiving only 10.4% of voting intentions in Brussels and Wallonia.
The absence of a strong far-right presence in Wallonia can be attributed to several factors, including the region’s focus on socio-economic issues, low unemployment rates, political and media agreements to prevent far-right parties from forming coalitions, and active anti-fascist civil society groups.
Vlaams Belang has largely relied on social media to engage young voters, who now have the right to vote at age 16, and has used the platform to promote its agenda of breaking up the country and establishing a Flemish republic with strict immigration policies.
In the European Parliament, Vlaams Belang currently holds three seats as part of the far-right Identity and Democracy group, which is set to gain an additional seat in the upcoming elections. The party’s success reflects broader trends of far-right growth in other European countries, with polls predicting far-right parties taking top spots in multiple member states.
