The left-wing Partij van de Arbeid (PVDA -Workers Party of Belgium) dominates the Belgian political scene on TikTok, while far-right Vlaams Belang (VB -Flemish Interest) reigns supreme on X, formerly Twitter, according to a communication analysis by Exposure.
Political parties are able to score on social media with themes such as Gaza and the pension debates: these two topics account for 55.7% of the top 100 posts across all platforms.
Parties at the two ends of the political spectrum benefit the most, with 60.1% of popular posts coming from PVDA or Vlaams Belang.
PVDA leads on TikTok, accounting for 85% of interactions related to Flemish political parties in May. This means that more than eight out of ten likes, comments, or shares on the platform pertain to the far-left party. The PVDA maintained its dominance in the first five months of the year with 78% of these interactions.
Additionally, six out of the ten most popular Flemish politicians on TikTok are from PVDA. Kim De Witte, a federal parliamentarian and pension expert from the Marxist party, was the politician with the most interactions across all social media in May. His speech on pension reform in parliament went viral, gaining over 225,000 interactions on TikTok alone.
On X, owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, the opposite end of the political spectrum excels. Seven out of ten interactions (69.7%) on top posts by politicians come from Vlaams Belang.
VB leader Tom Van Grieken ranks second among politicians with the most interactions, followed by Paul Magnette (Parti Socialiste), Jos D’Haese (PVDA), and Georges-Louis Bouchez (Mouvement Réformateur) in the top five.
