Flemish political parties have so far spent around €2.5 million on social network advertising this year, according to the AdLens collective, with N-VA and Vlaams Belang once again coming out as the biggest spenders.
Extrapolated over the whole year, this amount is expected to reach €6 million and could even exceed this ahead of the upcoming elections. Last year, the parties spent €5 million on social network advertising, which data analyst Geert Van Damme stated is indeed "a lot of money", even by Belgian standards.
AdLens founder Jan Steurs revealed in a tweet that the two right wing Flemish parties, N-VA and Vlaams Belang, are among some of the biggest spenders on political advertising in Europe, ahead of Greek party Néa Dimokratía in third place – from a country that actually had an election this year.
Tweet translation: €2.5 million in online advertisements. Yep, we're on our way to a record (again). In May, Vlaams Belang and N-VA's pages were number one and two in terms of political advertisements in Europe, followed by the Greek party Néa Dimokratía. And yes, in Greece there was an election. This once again points to the permanent campaign in Flanders. It is also interesting that VRT went in search of political parties' target audiences. Too bad Google was not taken into account, but I will find that out for you in a follow-up tweet.
Jean Faniel, Director of the Centre for Socio-Political Research and Information (CRISP), previously stated that it was not surprising that the Flemish nationalists were the top spenders, given that they are the best represented in the Chambers and therefore have large public grants.
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Leader of the far-right Vlaams Belang party, Tom Van Grieken, spent more on Facebook and Instagram advertising last year than any other politician in Western Europe. He defended himself, claiming that he was forced to turn to social media as other media outlets do not publish his ads or report on his policies.
Compared to other countries, Belgium gives a lot of money to American companies such as Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google, AdLens recorded.
