Belgian Establishment Suffers Poll Loss as Far Right Surges

Belgian voters splintered the political landscape in national and regional elections, dealing a blow to mainstream parties, bolstering both the far right and communists, and leaving the country with an uphill struggle to form a government.

The extremist anti-immigrant Flemish Interest party scored its best poll result in at least 12 years at the expense of Bart De Wever’s Flemish Nationalists. De Wever’s party remained the largest group in both the Dutch-speaking north and the federal parliament and could even be indispensable for a majority in the Flemish region. Prime Minister Charles Michel’s Liberals lost support as did the Socialists, the biggest party in the French-speaking south.