Far-right Flemish separatist party Vlaams Belang (VB) has increased its share of intentions to vote, compared to the actual federal elections in May of this year.
According to the Grand Barometer conducted by Ipsos for Le Soir, RTL Info, VTM and Het Laatste Nieuws, VB now polls at 27.3%, leading the field from N-VA, winners in May, but now in second place with 22.1% of voting intentions.
Some way behind those two comes CD&V on 11.4% in the poll, compared to 14.2% in May. Open VLD scores 9.9% now against 13.5% in May. Also under the symbolic bar of 10% are the socialist sp.a on 8.9% now, the far-left PVDA on 8.4% and Groen on 10.7%.
The top three political personalities in Flanders are all N-VA politicians: Bart De Wever, with 58% of votes in favour, Theo Francken (56%) and current minister-president Jan Jambon (50%).
In Wallonia, liberal MR maintains the 20.5% gained in May, despite having lost two of its main figureheads, Didier Reynders and Charles Michel to international institutions. The socialist PS loses 2.3% from its May score of 10.8%, while Ecolo scores 17.2%, 2.3 points up on May. The far-left PTB climbs from 13.8% in May to 16.5%. Trailing the field are cdH on 8.8%, down 2.9 points, and Défi, now scoring 4.7%, slightly up on May’s score of 4.1%.
The top personalities in Wallonia were socialist Paul Magnette (56%), Flemish socialist Johan Vande Lanotte (40%) and Green Jean-Marc Nollet (39%).
Finally in Brussels, the only increases among Francophones parties came to the joint PTB-PVDA slate (12.3% to 12.5%) and Défi, up from 10.3% to 12%. The others all saw their scores falling in comparison to May: Ecolo (21.6% to 19.7%), PS (20% to 18.9%), MR (17.5% to 16.2%) and cdH (5.8% to 5.1%).
On the Flemish side in Brussels, N-VA jumped from 3.2% to 4.8%, Vlaams Belang moved from 1.5% to 1.9%, Open VLD dropped slightly from 2.3% to 2.2%, and CD&V from 1.3% to 0.9%. In Brussels in May, Groen campaigned jointly with Ecolo, and sp.a with PS. Their scores are included in the French-speaking parties’ scores above.
In Brussels, the most popular political personalities were Paul Magnette, Olivier Maingain (Défi) and Johan Vande Lanotte, who though now retired served for a time with Didier Reynders as formateur of the next government, bringing him back to public attention.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
