Belgium
The story
1921–2025 · The far left
The Belgian Communist Party (KPB/PCB), founded in 1921 and aligned with Moscow, peaked after World War II, finishing third in 1946 with over 12 percent before declining rapidly. The Workers’ Party (PVDA/PTB), founded in 1979 as a Maoist party, shed revolutionary rhetoric in the 2000s under Peter Mertens and focused on healthcare, wages and pensions. It won 9.9 percent and fifteen seats in 2024. It is the only significant nationwide party, strongest in Wallonia, and abstained on resolutions pairing condemnation of Russia with arms for Ukraine.
1954-1991 · FLEMISH NATIONALISM SPLITS
Belgian parties split along linguistic lines in the 1960s and 1970s, leaving Flanders and Wallonia with separate party systems. The People’s Union (VU), founded in 1954 to promote Flemish autonomy, helped drive federalisation. A radical faction rejected the federal compromise and formed Vlaams Blok in 1978-79. Initially focused on independence, it turned to immigration in the 1980s under Filip Dewinter, breaking through in 1989 and again on “Black Sunday” in 1991.
1989-2024 · THE CORDON SANITAIRE AND ITS EROSION
The other parties isolated Vlaams Blok from 1989, reinforced by its extremist links and a 1992 “70-point” programme on immigrants. After organisations linked to it were convicted under anti-discrimination law in 2004, it dissolved and re-formed as Vlaams Belang (VB) with its ideology intact. After declining until 2014, it recovered, winning 13.8 percent and twenty seats in 2024. After the 2024 local elections, it won an absolute majority in Ninove and joined coalitions in Ranst, Izegem and Brecht, breaching the cordon locally, though it remains excluded from federal and Flemish governments.
2001-2025 · THE NATIONALIST CENTRE-RIGHT
The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), created in 2001 from the dissolved People’s Union, seeks a confederal Belgium through institutional means. Under Bart De Wever it dominated Flanders in the 2010s and is now best seen as a national-conservative party, not a populist radical-right one. It upholds the cordon and backs NATO and Ukraine. After winning 16.7 percent in 2024, De Wever became prime minister in February 2025, the first Flemish nationalist to do so.
1980s-2010s · THE WALLONIAN DEAD END
Wallonia’s radical-right Belgian National Front (FN), modelled on Le Pen’s party, backed Belgian unity rather than Flemish separatism. It sat intermittently in parliament from 1991 to 2010 with one or two percent, isolated by its own cordon. After leader Daniel Féret’s 2006 conviction for incitement to racial hatred, it collapsed amid infighting and legal disputes. The radical right thus became an essentially Flemish phenomenon, while the radical left is strongest in the south.
Also excluded
The National Front (FN), VB's Walloon counterpart, shared a name and ideology with Le Pen's French party but never cooperated closely with it; it sat in parliament 1991–2010 without influence. List Dedecker (LDD), founded in 2007 by former N-VA senator Jean-Marie Dedecker, was one of the first parties on the Flemish right to question the cordon sanitaire against VB.
EP elections
VB entered the European Parliament in 1989 and joined Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right group; FN followed in 1994, though both spent years as non-inscrits before co-founding the Identity and Democracy group. VB joined Identity and Democracy in 2019. In 2024 it won 14.5% nationally (22.9% in the Dutch-speaking college), and its three MEPs joined Patriots for Europe. N-VA sits in the ECR group, and PVDA/PTB won its first seat in 2019, joining GUE/NGL (now The Left), and increased to two MEPs in 2024 with 10.7%.
PVDA/PTB
Workers' Party of Belgium
- Economics Left
- Social issues Progressive
- EU Soft euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism Medium
VB
Vlaams Belang
- Economics Centre
- Social issues Conservative
- EU Soft euroscepticism
- Authoritarianism Medium