Most Belgians do not want the Federal Government to change the country's automatic wage indexation, increase VAT or cut defence spending to reduce the country's budget deficit. Instead, they want a wealth tax, according to the latest Grand Barometer survey.
For some months now, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) and his government have been looking for at least €7 billion to get Belgium's budget back on track.
However, according to the Ipsos Grand Barometer for Le Soir, RTL Info, Het Laatste Nieuws and VTM, the proposed measures are failing to convince the Belgian public: half of Belgians no longer believe that De Wever will be able to reduce the deficit — which is set to reach €35.8 billion by 2029.
Particularly in Wallonia, Brussels and among voters for opposition parties, De Wever is quickly losing credibility, according to the survey.
Taxing the rich
According to the survey, the most popular solution to Belgium's financial problems is a wealth tax. As many as three-quarters (76%) of Belgians want an extra tax on the largest fortunes.
Traditionally, left-wing voters are the strongest supporters of such a measure, something that is clearly visible: supporters of Francophone socialists PS (88%) were most in favour, closely followed by greens Ecolo (87%), Belgium's Workers Party PTB-PVDA (86%) and Flemish socialists Vooruit (86%).
Even supporters of Francophone centrists Les Engagés (84%) are clearly backing this tax. And what's even more interesting: so do voters of right-wing parties.
A large majority can be found among the supporters of conservative parties such as the Flemish nationalist party N-VA (70%), Flemish Christian Democrats CD&V (68%), and French-speaking and Flemish liberals MR and Anders (64%).
MR's Georges-Louis Bouchez and Prime Minister Bart De Wever are pictured during a plenary session of the Chamber at the Federal Parliament in Brussels on Thursday 02 April 2026. Credit: Belga
Whether this broad support will be enough to convince the government remains doubtful, however. The discussions surrounding the current capital gains tax almost resulted in government talks collapsing, and the measure was introduced only after much reluctance.
At the same time, MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez made clear that he would not give his green light to impose another extra tax on the rich.
However, other proposed measures are very unpopular. A proposal to increase VAT is especially disliked: around 71% of Belgians are opposed to such a measure. While opposition is stronger in Wallonia (78%), there is also a clear majority opposed to the increase in Flanders (66%).
Here, too, the traditional left-right divide blurs somewhat. While the rejection of a VAT rise is overwhelming on the left (93% of PTB-PVDA voters, 82% of PS voters are against it), it is also shared by certain right-wing parties (such as the MR, with 70%) or far-right parties (such as Flemish far-right Vlaams Belang, with 81%).
Only N-VA voters are in favour of the measure championed by the prime minister, but a clear division is visible even there: 47% are in favour, while 45% reject it.
Defence spending
Another topic for debate is Belgium's defence spending. The majority of respondents, in Flanders as well as Wallonia, are in favour of continuing to increase spending on the armed forces. Meanwhile, a third would like to see military spending cut again, while 46% believe it should remain at 2% of public spending.
Lastly, Belgians seemingly disagree with the Federal Government on how to reduce the number of long-term sick people: respondents favour monitoring people over pushing them back to work. Only 7% of Belgians want to speed up reintegration into the workplace.
The Grand Barometer poll, conducted by Het Laatste Nieuws, VTM NIEUWS, RTL and Le Soir, was carried out online by Ipsos between 1 and 9 June among 2,605 Belgians aged 18 and over. This included 1,001 Flemish people, 1,002 Walloons and 602 residents of Brussels.
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