Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang spent over €100,000 in May on Facebook advertising, according to a report by the Facebook Ad Library.
The party spent €107,347 on 102 advertisements between 2 and 31 May. An additional €18,795 went to 33 ads for Vlaams Belang President Tom Van Grieken and €4,136 was spent on 16 ads for MEP Tom Vandendriessche. Finally, the party spent €3,981 on six ads for Vlaams Belang Brussel and €3,352 on three ads for a francophone Vlaams Belang Facebook page.
The far-right party was ahead of right-wing N-VA and workers' party PTB-PVDA in Facebook advertising spending.
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N-VA spent €37,836 on 72 advertisements, in addition to four ads for President Bart De Wever (€4,701), two for Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon (€3,374) and six for Federal MP Theo Francken (€2,123).
The bilingual PTB-PVDA spent over €50,000, consisting of €24,611 on 71 ads for PVDA, €21,261 for 58 ads for President Peter Mertens, €8,029 for 47 ads for PTB, and €4,862 for 32 ads for the party's student movement page, Comac étudiants.
Flemish Socialist Party leader Conner Rousseau also spent €29,774 for 189 advertisements, and the francophone Liberal Party's Georges-Louis Bouchez spent €10,656 on 44 advertisements.
Vlaams Belang spent more money on Facebook advertising than any other party during the 2019 electoral campaign, in which the party was the biggest winner in Flanders.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
