The far-right in French-speaking Wallonia has only managed to win two seats in the Belgian parliament in three decades.
Opinion polls show a significant increase in support for the far-right in June’s EU elections, but there is no sign of their existence in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium. At least in the local media.
This is because the local media have collectively put the far right on a media boycott.
– Journalists don’t put microphones in front of them, which has led to them not being heard and therefore not being known about, professor of political science at the University of Liege Francois Debras said news agency AFP.
The difference is quite significant compared to Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, where there is no media boycott and where representatives of the far-right are featured in the media like other politicians.
The Walloon far-right has only managed to win two seats in the Belgian parliament in three decades.
The parties that belong to it, such as Chez Nous, try to circumvent the media boycott by focusing on social media.
There, the writings of the Chez Nous party are as popular as those of the largest parties in Wallonia.
The background of the media boycott is the boycott of the ruling parties
The media boycott has its roots in the late 1980s, when the right-wing populist Vlaams Blok party gained popularity in local elections in the Flanders region.
Its popularity grew and it reached 12 seats in the Belgian Parliament. At the same time, the far-right National Front party was founded in Wallonia.
As a result, the ruling parties adopted the so-called Cordon sanitaire line, which refused to cooperate with the far-right.
Vlaams Blok was later banned as racist, but its successor Vlaams Belang continues the party’s right-wing populist line, which includes opposition to gay unions and immigration.