Three elections, which will take place on June 9th, can destabilize the dynamics of the Belgium and print one extremist turn to national politics. Citizens will vote for the election of their representatives to theNational Assemblyto the Parliament Europeanat Provincial Legislative Assemblies and at stake is the future of the country that hosts one of the capitals of the European institutions. Surveys indicate that i Flemish separatist parties they should obtain the largest percentage of votes on a national scale and this data could push them to implement their projects. The Belgium it is profoundly divided internally between Flandersa rich northern province culturally linked to Netherlands and the Walloniathe region French-speaking south in the past rich in mineral deposits and industrial plants but now impoverished. There are in the middle Brusselsmulticultural and progressive capital home to many EU offices and the small German autonomous community who lives in the east of the country.
The marriage between Flanders And Wallonia it has been creaking for decades now and the profound diversity between the two regions makes it very difficult to govern the country. Local parliaments enjoy political prerogatives very broad and most political parties have two very distinct sections, one Flemish and one valley, so citizens of the respective regions can vote in national elections. There are few exceptions to this rule, among them the case of Belgian Workers’ Party and this situation implies a strong fragmentation of the scenario. The strong ideological differences between Flanders And Wallonia complicate things further: in the first the radical right-wing separatist parties are very strong while in the second the left-wing and far-left political parties dominate. Finding a post-election synthesis for the formation of the government can prove long and complex and negotiations tend to drag on, even for hundreds of days. A part of the citizens of the rich Flanderswhere the cities of are located Ghent And Brugeswould like to separate from the rest of Belgium to make the most of its economic potential while i Walloonsa linguistic community born more as a reaction against the Flemish one than for spontaneous reasons, wants to maintain the status quo.
There poll average for national elections, collected by Politic and updated to May 31, highlights the regional splits. In Flanders the Vlaams Belangtraining separatist Of right radicalis first with 27 percent of the votes and is followed by conservative separatists from the New Flemish Alliance with 20 percent of the votes. In Wallonia there radical right and the separatists are practically non-existent and in first place there is a head-to-head between the center-right of the Reform Movement (24 percent of the votes) and socialists (22 percent of the votes). Here, however, the is very strong Belgian Workers’ Party, far left, with 15 percent of the votes. TO Brussels the Marxist-Leninists they even are secondswith 19 percent of the preferences, behind the Reform Movement with 23 percent. The voting system is type proportional with barrier at 5 percent and the National Assembly has 150 seats.
The projection on the distribution of seats highlights that the first three parties, Vlaams Belang with 26 seats, New Flemish Alliance with 20 e Workers’ Party with 19, I am extremists and eurosceptics. A sensational case that will force the more moderate parties, Flemish and Walloon, to work hard to reach the 76 seats needed to form the next government. The Reform Movement it has, according to the average of the polls, just 18 seats, i Walloon socialists 16, the Flemish ones 12 seats as well as the Walloon liberals while the Christian Democrats they have 10 and the Greens have even fewer. An unwritten pact, in force since 1991, unites the various Belgian parties in the commitment not to form any type of coalition with the Vlaams Belangin the past Vlaams Block. At the moment this commitment seems to hold up but it is not certain that, in the future, things cannot change if the success of the far right becomes increasingly overwhelming.
The Vlaams Belanglike other parties of the European radical rightfavors a tough approach on crime and the implementation of strong immigration restrictions with the stop refugees and asylum seekers while expressing skepticism towards theEuropean Union and the fight against climate change. The movement also wants an increase in wages and minimum pensions by adopting a social approach to the country’s problems. Above all, the desire to make Flanders independent stands out while the other autonomist movement, the New Alliance Flemishwould prefer to create a confederation, emptying the central government of many of its remaining prerogatives.
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In the photo above | The outgoing prime minister, the liberal democrat Alexander De Croo
