“We Are a Marxist Party That Believes in a Socialist Future”
In Belgium, a party of Marxist-Leninist background is mounting a surprising challenge to the mainstream.
PTB leader Peter Mertens with the party’s MP Raoul Hedebouw
Belgium doesn’t seem an obvious home of political radicalism. In public debate in other European countries, the word “Brussels” is synonymous with the institutions of a distant and bureaucratic EU. Yet the Belgian working class also has its own history of exploitation, and struggle, from the coal miners of the Borinage to the general strike of 1960. And today, as the political panorama is polarized between far-right Flemish nationalists and a withering center, the Left is also reemerging in new forms. A long-established Marxist-Leninist party, the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB) has made a particularly notable breakthrough in recent years, hitting 12 percent of the vote in October’s local elections in the capital.
Jacobin’s David Broder spoke to the party’s leader Peter Mertens about recent changes in his party, the reasons for its advances, and how it envisions a wider transformation of the European order.
David Broder
The Belgian Workers’ Party made breakthroughs in October’s local elections. In Brussels you scored almost 12 percent of the vote, and also had good numbers in the bigger cities in Flanders and even more so in Wallonia. What kind of appeal are you able to make, and what kind of voters’ concerns are you answering?
Peter Mertens
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