Belgian voters polls apart

BELGIUM could be in for a long summer of negotiations before its new government is formed, following a potentially divisive election in which two parties of the right and left received the most votes.

The largest party in the Dutch-speaking Flanders, with up to 30% of the vote, will be the right-wing New Flanders Alliance (N-VA) that campaigned on a ticket of splitting the country in two along linguistic lines.

In the southern French -speaking region of Walloon the Socialists are once again the largest party, having increased support to gain more than 32% of the vote, putting them in a very strong position nationally.

Bart De Wever, leader of the victorious N-VA, threw down the gauntlet to the French-speaking Walloons last night in Brussels.

“Dare to change. Dare to move forward. We celebrate in the knowledge that 70% of Flemish people did not choose us and so we recognise that we must build bridges. I extend my hand to the Francophones.”

But he made it quite clear that he intends to pursue the demise of Belgium, which he said would be good for all, adding that it was not to the advantage of French speakers to live in a blockaded country.

The bilingual city of Brussels and its suburbs has punished the VRD that prematurely brought down the government over a long- simmering language row.

The liberal MR Reformist Movement party and its leader, outgoing finance minister Didier Reynders, gained in the capital, but generally lost support in Flanders.

The Christian Democrats, who held the reins in the outgoing government and the premiership, lost support in their Flanders heartland, according to exit polls, while the Greens and the Flemish Socialists gained.

Vlaams Belang, the xenophobic party that has campaigned for a split for decades, lost support to the N-VA but the party’s Filip Dewinter described it as an ideological win. “Others reap what we have sown for 30 years,” he said.

Flanders and Walloon have separate political parties and each area votes for its own parties.