MB

The strength of the far right owes to many factors. Two are that when social democracy started to decline in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, disappointing its own working-class base, we were perceived — probably rightly — as too small and radical as to be an alternative. The previous incarnation of the far right, Vlaams Blok, gobbled up support in those years. Flanders has always had a certain Flemish nationalism which does have an important cultural influence, and the radical right has been able to capitalize on this.

N-VA — an alt-right and nationalist Flemish party which presents itself as not on the far right, and indeed an obstacle against it — has succeeded in waging a cultural battle that draws the whole political terrain to the right and opens the way to far-right themes and vocabulary. This has helped Vlaams Belang become the second biggest party in Flanders.

Yet in this election, we also saw that this region is no monolith. Electing members to the Flemish parliament, and to the federal Belgian parliament from Flanders, we have broken through the far-right’s claim that there is “no place” for Marxists or leftists in Flanders, resisting their violent rhetoric against “rats” on the Left.

We faced difficult circumstances — the far right has been normalized, including even being invited on children’s TV shows to dance along with other politicians, and had maybe twenty times more media coverage than us. But taking people’s social concerns and fears seriously is the necessary condition for breaking through the far right’s appeal and providing a locomotive that can pull things to the left. Indeed, we especially invested effort in Antwerp, because it was important to elect people in different parts of the country.

In Wallonia, it is true, the far right has made no breakthrough. This has to do with our work. But we shouldn’t idealize this as if it were a racist-free paradise. In the local elections, in some cities far-right forces scored double figures, if taken together, and the potential does exist.

But we struggle against this and have succeeded in denying the space for such a party to emerge in Wallonia. We have had success in mobilizing an anti-establishment vote, by talking about people’s wages, their future, their jobs, but there’s also a cultural battle to be had against the far right. At the same time, if we do get an “anti-establishment” vote, people are becoming more aware of our specific program with around 840 concrete proposals and alternatives.