Weather Prediction: - Elections held in Belgium result in a surge for nationalists.
In the recent Belgian parliamentary elections, the Flemish nationalists, represented by the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), are anticipated to clinch victory. Data from the Interior Ministry demonstrated that the party, which advocates for more autonomy for the economically prosperous Flanders region, secured around 18.2% of the votes.
This was disclosed after counting votes from around 90% of the polling stations. Approximately 6,300 out of the 6,945 voting sites had been tallied by nighttime.
The radical right-wing party Vlaams Belang from Flanders may potentially become the second most dominant force, garnering 3.1 percentage points to achieve a total of 15%. A Flemish-national government was deemed to be improbable before the election. N-VA leader Bart De Wever dismissed the idea of allying with Vlaams Belang beforehand.
The Flemish liberal party Open VLD, with Prime Minister Alexander De Croo serving as its leader, experienced a setback and received approximately 5.8% (-2.8 percentage points). The liberals in the Wallonia area attained a slight increase, reaching 8.8% (+1.3 percentage points). The Social Democrats in Flanders also saw a 2-percentage-point rise and hit 8.8%.
On the contrary, the French-speaking Social Democrats suffered a 3-percentage-point loss and fell from 9.4% to 6.5%. This resulted in the left-wing party PTB/PVDA overtaking them, amassing 9.5% of the votes. The party is the only one eligible for voting in both regions.
The Greens faced a decline in both regions during the elections. They obtained 4.8% in Flanders (-1.3 percentage points) and merely 2.7% in Wallonia (-3.4 percentage points). While the Christian Democrats maintained their position in Flanders at 8.7%, they garnered an additional 2.3 percentage points in the Wallonia region, achieving around 6%.
The complexity of the government formation process in neighboring Germany arises due to the fact that the majority of parties solely compete in one of the two regions. Therefore, the formation of a viable coalition incorporating parties from both parts of the country can be a challenging task.
Following the parliamentary elections in 2019, it took approximately 16 months for the so-called Vivaldi coalition, comprising seven parties, to be established: the Greens, Liberals, Social Democrats from both regions, and the Christian Democrats from Flanders. Collectively, approximately 8 million Belgians were called to cast their votes. In Belgium, voting is mandatory, and those who fail to do so without a legally justifiable excuse are subject to a fine.
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- The victory in the parliamentary elections for the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) was strongly supported by Vlaams Belang, another Flemish nationalist party, which gained 15% of the votes.
- In Wallonia, the region of Belgium that is French-speaking, the Social Democrats suffered a significant loss, falling from 9.4% to 6.5%, allowing the left-wing party PTB/PVDA to surpass them with 9.5% of the votes.
- Bart De Wever, the leader of the N-VA, had previously dismissed the idea of forming a government with Vlaams Belang, but the forecast for the parliamentary election results has led some to reconsider this stance.
- The parliamentary election in Belgium saw a rise in support for nationalist parties, with Vlaams Belang becoming a significant force in Flanders, and the Greens facing declines in both regions.
- The forthcoming formation process of a Belgian government is expected to be complex due to the dominance of regional parties, similar to the tedious task faced after the 2019 parliamentary elections, which required 16 months to establish the so-called Vivaldi coalition.
