The centre-right head of the regionalist Flemish government stirred the pot Tuesday afternoon by strongly insinuating that his New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) party could defect from the conservative ECR parliamentary bloc after June’s European elections, citing wider ideological differences between his party and the group.
Jan Jambon serves as minister-president of Flanders and is a leading figure within the N-VA. He made the comments at an event to mark Belgium’s Presidency of the European Council in Antwerp, saying that his party primarily joined the ECR in 2014 to form relations with Britain’s Conservative Party.
Expected to make significant gains this year, the ECR group is one of the two major right-wing blocs within the European Parliament and includes the Italian Fratelli Party, the Sweden Democrats, and the Polish Law and Justice Party.
A potential Flemish departure from the ECR could change the calculus on the formation of the next European Commission with speculation around Brussels that the centrist EPP may attempt to forge an alliance with the conservative group, should results allow.
Regarded as the more ‘moderate’—in comparison to Vlaams Belang—face of Flemish separatism, N-VA is likely to join the EPP group with its potential membership a possible sticking point for anti-separatist Belgian parties already in the bloc.
The regionally-minded Flemish ECR delegation consists of three MEPs and is thought to be liberal within the group, having previously sat with the Greens before 2014.
Explaining his party’s alleged discomfort within the group, Jambon explained “we don’t feel completely at home with the ECR anymore,” as he suggested that the N-VA would leave after the European elections in June.
In a statement to The European Conservative, a N-VA spokesman stated that Jambon had said “nothing new” in his Antwerp remarks and downplayed any strain with the ECR as merely pre-election rumours, thanking the group for the “degrees of freedom” offered by its membership.
The ECR describes itself as “Eurorealist/antifederalist” in policy, while its members run the ideological gamut from conservative to populist. The group benefited from the defection of the Finns Party delegation from the nationalist ID group last April. The Finns cited a rise of anti-NATO sentiments within ID and chose to join the ECR.
The most recent polling indicates a 19-seat jump by the ECR in the 705-member European Parliament, with the group likely to benefit from expected gains by Meloni’s Fratelli party as it attempts to take up a kingmaker role in the next parliamentary term.
