Separatists win Flanders region in Belgian election: TV poll

The separatist NVA party won the largest share of the vote in Dutch-speaking Flanders in Belgium’s general election Sunday, according to television projections.

The NVA (New Flemish Alliance) won 29 percent of votes cast in Flanders, Belgium’s more affluent north, the VRT television projections showed as results continued to trickle through.

Such a result is unprecedented for a party in favour of eventual independence from the francophone region of Wallonia and will boost fears their of an eventual national split.

Among the francophone electorate the socialists appeared in front, garnering 36 percent of the vote in both in Wallonia and in the Brussels region, the country’s only officially bilingual area, the projections showed.

Official results were expected later in the evening.

Once all ballots are counted, political parties in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels will begin the herculean task of trying to form a new coalition government in a country where there are no national parties.

NVA leader Bart de Wever, set for a game-changing victory in the north of the country where 60 percent of the Belgian population lives, said before the election that he does not want to become federal prime minister, though has not ruled out taking a government post.