Belgian political parties spent a record amount of €25.4 million on propaganda in 2023, but both the Flemish rightwing N-VA and far-right Vlaams Belang – the country's two biggest winners after the elections – spent considerably more than the other parties.
Together, all Belgian political parties spent €25.43 million on propaganda and advertising in 2023, as well as €36.97 million on personnel, according to the political parties' approved annual accounts published on the Chamber's website last weekend.
That means that nearly a third (31.5%) of the €80.8 million in subsidies that all represented parties in parliament together received flowed to propaganda, Apache reports.
Propaganda versus personnel
The bulk of the parties' spending (45.7%) continues to go to personnel costs, yet the cost ratio with propaganda varies greatly depending on the party and the two Flemish-nationalist parties – Vlaams Belang and N-VA – spent much more on propaganda than on personnel last year.
Particularly N-VA spent a large amount of money on propaganda and advertising: €8.01 million – almost double the €4.25 million spent in 2022. The party already spent significantly more on propaganda than other parties before, but the difference widened considerably in 2023. Following N-VA are Vlaams Belang (€3.27 million), radical left PVDA/PTB (€3.02 million) and Flemish socialist Vooruit (€2.26 million).
Spending on personnel (indicative of substantive work) shows a very different picture. With €5.56 million, Francophone socialist PS spent the most on personnel costs in 2023. They are followed by PVDA/PTB (€4.82 million), N-VA (€4.35 million) and Francophone greens Ecolo (€3.95 million).
This makes N-VA and Vlaams Belang the only two parties to spend more on propaganda than on personnel last year. But for Vlaams Belang in particular the difference is very large: the far-right party spent as much as 6.4 times more on propaganda than on substantive work: €3.27 million versus €0.51 million.
N-VA congress. Credit: Belga
When looking at the percentages of annual government subsidies going to propaganda, four parties are above the average of 28.36%: N-VA is far ahead with 67%, followed by PVDA/PTB (47%), Vooruit (43.3%) and Vlaams Belang (37.1%).
How much money parties received from the government in previous years depends on the number of votes they obtained in the 2019 elections. In 2023, Belgian parties received almost €80.8 million. As N-VA was the largest party, it also received the largest amount: just under €12 million. In second place was PS (€9.6 million), Vlaams Belang (€8.8 million) and Francophone liberal MR (€7.9 million).
Despite the fact that all parties seemingly agree that they are subsidised too lavishly, Apache underlined that attempts to structurally reduce government subsidies or earmark them for substantive work instead of propaganda have failed every time.
Other sources of income
Together, the political parties in Belgium possess a total of €122.1 million. N-VA remains by far the richest party, with €25.35 million.
Vlaams Belang last year strengthened its position as the second richest party in the country and now has equity of €15.09 million. The recent election results – and subsequent significant increase in government subsidies for Vlaams Belang – will probably further strengthen that position in the coming years.
In addition to government grants, political parties have other sources of income: some parties rent out real estate or have financial investments that yield a return, but the most significant extra income is from member contributions and remittances from MPs to the party.
PTB-PVDA leader Raoul Hedebouw delivers his post-election speech. Credit: Belga / Kristof Van Accom
As far as contributions from MPs are concerned, three parties are leading the way: PS (€2.69 million), PVDA/PTB (€2.66 million) and Ecolo (€2.46 million). A little further down the line are Groen (€905,000, Vlaams Belang (€742,000) and N-VA (€709,000).
For this, the number of representatives per party must be taken into account. For a smaller party such as Groen, fewer people contribute more than for a large party such as N-VA, where more people contribute less.
When it comes to income from membership fees, PVDA/PTB – whose MPs and other members give part of their wages to the party – is way ahead of the other parties: in 2023, the party received €2.42 million in contributions from its members. PS (€390,000), MR (€369,000) and CD&V (€316,000) follow far behind.
