Far-left makes breakthrough in Flanders
The far-left party PVDA has made significant gains across Belgium in the regional and federal elections. The party is set to send MPs to the Flemish Parliament for the first time. With more than half of the votes having been counted, the party is forecast to get 3 Members of the Flemish Parliament.
PVDA and the its Francophone wing PTB is set to take 10 seats in the Federal Parliament. This is a big increase on the 2 seats (both Francophones) that the party had in the 2014-2019 Federal Parliament. Four of these are Flemings, the other six Francophones. Needless to say Mr Mertens is overjoyed that his party had cross the electoral threshold in Flanders. He told VRT News that "We are the second winners of the elections".
Speaking specifically about his party's sucess in Flanders, Mr Mertens said "For the first time there will be authentic left-wing Flemish representatives in the Flemish Parliament. We are going to built a strong group that will fight harder than ever". Mr Mertens added that “There are two parties that have made progress. One party that has been given a lot of media attention and one that got little attention from the media: Vlaams Belang and us”.