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Far-right Vlaams Bloc make gains

01 May 2003

The Belgian general election in May saw the far-right Vlaams Bloc achieve its largest vote in its twenty-five year history, five months after "race riots" in the port city of Antwerp. The anti-immigration organisation increased its vote in its strongholds and received 18% of the votes in Flanders, the northern Flemish-speaking part of Belgium. This led the Belgian newspaper De Standaard, to warn that the impact of the far-right should not be underestimated. It has suggested that the Bloc will soon overtake the Christian Democrats in Flanders. The party's president, Frank Vanhecke, said that they had achieved "a great victory" and called for other parties to lift their block on working with the right-wing popularists. There is little likelihood of the mainstream parties lifting their boycott and the Bloc's leader, Filip Dewinter, has already acknowledged that "the chances that we will make it into government are very small."

The francophone National Front also made inroads in some areas of the French speaking Wallonia. The election results will see a continuation of the coalition between the free-market Liberals and the Socialists. The Green vote slumped and the party lost its seat in the governing coalition. Although voting is compulsory in Belgium up to 10% of voters were reported to have abstained in certain areas of the country.