2024 is an exciting year in European politics not only because of the European Parliament (EP) election but also a number of national elections already or to be held this year across the member states. The Belgian federal election is definitely one to be mentioned, which was due on the same day as the EP election, 9 June 2024. In addition, Belgians had to elect the members of the regional parliaments as well. Belgian politics is itself interesting and unusual due to the state’s strongly federal character, resulting in a complex division of legislative and executive powers between the community, regional and federal levels.
In the latest episode of MCC’s Votes & Seats podcast series, Szabolcs Janik (senior researcher, Center for Political Science) had the honor to discuss the results and consequences of the Belgian federal election with Bjarn Eck, PhD-researcher at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. According to our guest, the most surprising development was the weaker-than-expected performance of Vlaams Belang (VB), a Flemish right-wing nationalist party, strongly advocating for the independence of Flanders. It was also yet to be seen whether the cordon sanitaire erected around VB by mainstream parties would last after the election. It seemingly will, as the absolute winner of the federal and Flemish elections, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) ruled out the possibility of governing together with Tom Van Grieken’s party. Instead, as Mr. Eck argues, N-VA is likely to start coalition talks with the Flemish Christian democrats (CD&V), the conservative liberal Reformist Movement as the winner in Walloon, and a centrist power called Les Engagés also from Walloon. From our current podcast episode, you can also learn about the key campaign topics and party positions on them, or how different elections together make up the overall Belgian political landscape.
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