eurosceptic anti-immigration populist parties close in on winning Belgium | Eastern NC Now

Belgium's national capital of Brussels is also adminstrative capital of the European Union, but this relationship may become very strained if Belgians vote in their June 2024 election the way polls are showing currently. 

Two populist / nationalist anti-immigration and eurosceptic parties, Vlaams Balang and the New Flemish Alliance, are surging in the polls and between them polling just under fifty percent of the national vote.  Both parties also advocate that the nation be divided with the much more populous and economically developed Dutch-speaking Flanders, including the capital Brussels, separating from the less successful and less populated French-speaking Waloonia, although the two parties do not agree on timetables for that division.

The two populist right parties are on the knife edge of obtaining a majority between themselves, but if they fall just short, there are two traditional center-right parties that could potentially provide a coalition partner.

Opposition to illegal immigration is a big issue in Belgium, as it was in the Dutch election, but so is opposition to increasing EU control of national affairs, and to the EU "green" regulations that are driving up energy prices.  Both populist parties want to significantly whittle down the power of the EU.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1850457/eu-belgium-flanders-vlaams-belang-brussels

Belgium belonged to Spain for several centuries when it was known as the Spanish Netherlands, and then to Austria for almost a century, being known as the Austrian Netherlands up to the Napoleonic Wars.  It was awarded to the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the Congress of Vienna after the Napoleonic Wars but seceded in 1830 and became an independent country.

Belgium is not the only European country voting in 2024 where the populist / nationalist anti-immigration right is surging.  Portugal will vote in March in a snap election for parliament after the Socialist prime minister was caught in a corruption scandal involving green energy and his government fell.  Polls are showing the populist / nationalist anti-immigration Chega Party doubling its vote, and likely to be able to form a majority government with the country's traditional right.