With the elections coming up in just over two weeks, research shows that nearly all political parties in Belgium have taken a more right-wing position than in 2019.
The French-speaking political playing field is set much more to the left than the Flemish one, but even the Francophone parties are now moving to the right – albeit not as much as their Dutch-speaking counterparts, generally.
"The distance between 'left-wing Wallonia' and 'right-wing Flanders' may be shrinking somewhat on an economic level, but culturally the distance seems to have increased," lead researcher and political scientist Stefaan Walgrave (UAntwerp) remarked.
In Flanders, the most notable ideological change is found in the Christian-Democrat CD&V party – which has traditionally been a very centrist party, but is now making a big shift to the right, especially on a cultural level. On the left side of the spectrum, an almost identical shift happened at the Flemish socialist Vooruit party, mainly driven by stricter positions on migration.
On the other side of the language border, the biggest shift step – one could even call it a leap – to the right comes from the liberal MR, under leader Georges-Louis Bouchez. The party is even positioning itself to the right of the Flemish traditionally rightwing N-VA.
"On the economic axis, MR is now perhaps the most right-wing party in the country," Walgrave said.
This shift makes the contrast with the rest of the political parties in French-speaking Belgium much more pronounced, as MR is the only Francophone party that is so far on the right side of the economic axis, as well as the only one that is culturally conservative.
The full article can be read here. Let @Maajtee know your thoughts.
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