The N-VA is a young party but one with a massive following today. It is the largest party in the outgoing Flemish parliament and consistently appears in second place in recent opinion polls. So, what do the Flemish nationalists stand for? Here’s an attempt to help you find out!
N-VA stands for New Flemish Alliance. It is a Flemish-nationalist party, which means defending the interests of Flemish people within the Belgian context is its main goal.
The party advocates an independent Flanders but does not want to do this through a revolution, but by making the Belgian state 'dissolve': the federal state should cede more and more powers to the federated entities.
A first step in that direction, the N-VA calls ‘confederalism’. This is a type of union of independent states that still pool some powers e.g. defence or foreign policy.
The N-VA should be situated on the right of the political spectrum. It is a conservative, pro-business party that espouses free-market economics.
Socio-economically, the N-VA is decidedly on the right: work and enterprise are central, preferably with a low tax burden and a focus on a healthy budget. On migration, the party advocates a strict asylum and return policy.
In the fight against climate change, the N-VA advocates 'Eco realism': using affordable solutions and technology to combat global warming. This certainly includes the use of nuclear energy.
The party's three main positions
VRT News asked the N-VA what its three main positions are ahead of the 9 June federal, regional and European elections:
The party says order must be returned to government budgets by implementing necessary reforms and savings. According to the N-VA, this is policy priority number one.
Moreover, in people’s pockets the difference between working and not working should be at least 500 euros after tax. In this way, the N-VA wants to get more people into work and keep our social security system solvent. The party envisages lower charges on labour, but also a benefit ceiling and a benefit norm. The party also only wants to make our social security system accessible after people have lived in Belgium legally for five years.
The N-VA is insisting on confederalism. The party wants Flanders and Wallonia to be able to pursue their own policies using their own revenue, and to decide together what they do still want to do jointly. The N-VA sees confederalism as a prerequisite to being able to pursue centre-right policies in Flanders.
New, but with long antecedents
The N-VA has only actually existed as a party since 2001, but the party is one of the heirs of the traditional Flemish-nationalist party, the Volksunie (VU). The VU emerged in the mid-1950s as the political wing of the Flemish movement.
Within the VU, various different currents surfaced, with some Flemish-minded politicians wanting to pursue a liberal economic course, others holding more progressive social views and a group of more traditionalist, centre-right figures. By the year 2000, these internal contradictions become too great and the VU exploded.
The centre-right faction of the VU founded the N-VA party, with Geert Bourgeois as its first leader. The party didn’t really see a break-through in the following elections, in 2003, with Geert Bourgeois being the only N-VA member to be elected to parliament.
To survive the N-VA soon decided to join forces with the Flemish Christian democrat CD&V: the Flemish nationalists and the Christian democrats formed a cartel or an alliance in 2004 - 'CD&V/N-VA'. And that formula proved an overwhelming success: it became Flanders' biggest political formation in one fell swoop. The cartel is also the big winner of the 2007 federal elections. CD&V leader Yves Leterme is seen as the man pulling in the votes.
The cooperation is not to be long-lived. After difficult federal government formation negotiations the N-VA’s trust in the CD&V's approach to state reforms falters. From 2008 onwards, both parties went their separate ways.
The cartel had clearly not harmed the N-VA: suddenly election victory after election victory followed. This is partly due to the popularity of N-VA leader Bart De Wever, who also gained fame through his participation in a television quiz.
The N-VA even managed to help form a federal government in 2014, with the Francophone liberal Charles Michel as prime minister. It’s a coalition of Flemish nationalists, Christian democrats and liberals with the Francophone liberals. But things go wrong before the parliament is out: at the end of 2018, under pressure from the growing popularity of the far-right opposition party Vlaams Belang, the N-VA refuses to approve the (non-binding) UN Migration Pact. The party then leaves the Michel government.
It's a move that isn’t validated by the electorate. In the 2019 Flemish and federal elections the N-VA loses votes. At the Flemish regional level, however, the party remains in charge, with their own Jan Jambon as Flemish prime minister, but federally, after an attempt by Bart De Wever to strike a deal with the Francophone socialist PS, the party is ultimately sidelined.