BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – A Flemish party that wants to split Belgium triumphed in a parliamentary election yesterday, a result that could make it hard to form a coalition quickly and deliver austerity to contain a rising national debt.
Belgium can ill afford drawn-out coalition talks because policy paralysis could make the country more vulnerable on financial markets that are closely watching a sovereign debt crisis among the 16 countries that use the euro.
The N-VA (New Flemish Alliance) was the strongest party in the Dutch-speaking Flanders region of northern Belgium. It won more votes there than the French-speaking Socialists (PS) secured in separate voting in the southern, Francophone region of Wallonia, nearly complete results showed.
“The N-VA has won the election today,” N-VA leader Bart De Wever, 39, told cheering, flag-waving supporters who burst into a rendition of the Flemish national anthem.
Interior Ministry projections showed the N-VA, which advocates Belgium’s step-by-step dissolution with Flanders and Wallonia going their separate ways, would have 27 seats in the lower house of parliament, one more than the PS.
But together with the Flemish socialists, the PS could form the largest group in parliament, meaning PS leader Elio Di Rupo could become the next prime minister. De Wever is reluctant to be leader of a united Belgium, and has said he is open to the idea of a first French-speaking premier since 1974 if that would bring more powers to Flanders.
“You don’t have to like each other to work together,” he said.
The Christian Democrats and the liberals, former partners in the government, suffered heavy losses.
It is the first time a party advocating the end of Belgium has won the most votes in a federal election.