The Flemish rightwing N-VA will not form a government with the far-right Vlaams Belang, party leader Bart De Wever said in a Flemish television programme – marking the first time De Wever unequivocally refused any collaboration.
As Vlaams Belang is seemingly only gaining support in the polls, one first-time voter asked De Wever whether he would go into coalition with them should it become the largest party. He has been asked this question several times before, but this is the first time he has answered it so unambiguously.
"If you ask me whether I feel related to that party and would form a government with it? The answer is carrément no," De Wever said. "My answer is absolutely not."
'What's the point?'
Should Vlaams Belang win the elections, De Wever explained that the first question will be whether they will be able to govern on a federal level. "But they do not want that, they have said so themselves. But nearly all issues we have discussed – migration, taxes, climate – have to be solved in that Federal Government."
"So if they do not want to participate there, my question is: what's the point then? But the answer is simple: there is no point. Those votes are lost."
The next question De Wever is usually asked, he said, is whether N-VA will then consider going into coalition with Vlaams Belang at the Flemish level. "But I ask you: to do what? I agree with that party on almost nothing and I do not like their style either."
N-VA leader Bart De Wever and Vlaams Belang leader Tom Van Grieken in 2019. Credit: Belga / Dirk Waem
Within N-VA, however, there is no clear consensus about the issue. While De Wever and several others are fiercely against the idea of ruling with the far-right, some other prominent party members (such as Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon) called Vlaam Belang "a party like any other."
"I freely admit that it is a struggle within my party," De Wever said. "I understand that people think we as a party are a bit lost on that. It is also a very difficult issue. How do you stop the growth of these extreme ideologies?"
"Do we do that by effectively letting them govern for once and say 'we will what happens then?' or by not going to do that under any circumstances? That is a struggle in several parties, I think. Including in mine," he said. "But I will not govern with them."
