Vooruit
EU RANK: 25 (Tier 1: Top Performance)
Vooruit is a Flemish social‑democratic party, historically rooted in the workers’ movement and trade‑union milieu, positioned on the centre‑left. After rebranding from sp.a to Vooruit it modernised its image but has struggled with competition from both Greens and far‑left PTB‑PVDA in Flanders. In the 2024 federal and Flemish elections it retained a significant but not dominant share of the Flemish left‑of‑centre vote and participates in coalition negotiations rather than leading government formation.
Disinformation and alternative media
Vooruit relies mainly on mainstream Flemish media (VRT and major commercial groups), party publications and social media, and does not operate a parallel ecosystem of conspiratorial outlets. Its messaging focuses on social justice, healthcare, labour rights and taxation, and is typically presented in technocratic and welfare‑state terms rather than through polarising or conspiracy‑driven narratives. Mapping of Belgium’s disinformation landscape identifies far‑right networks and some anti‑system actors as the central drivers of online falsehoods, especially on migration, climate and vaccines, while social‑democratic parties appear mostly as targets of such content.
Vooruit has called for stronger platform accountability and media‑literacy measures to tackle online disinformation, often in alliance with Greens and francophone socialists. There is no evidence of coordinated disinformation campaigns run by the party itself. The disinformation and alternative‑media risk is therefore low.
Foreign influence and external alignments
Vooruit is pro‑EU and broadly supportive of NATO and European security cooperation, while emphasising diplomacy, multilateralism and social‑democratic economic policies. It supports EU‑level action against authoritarian regimes, including sanctions, human‑rights conditionality and counter‑disinformation initiatives.
Analyses of foreign information manipulation in Belgium focus on Russian and other authoritarian influence attempts but do not implicate Vooruit as a conduit or facilitator. Its foreign‑influence DMI risk is therefore low.
Media capture, advertising and public service media
In Flanders, media power is concentrated among a handful of private conglomerates and the public broadcaster VRT, and political influence over media has historically been strongest for Christian‑democratic and nationalist parties. Vooruit has much less direct structural leverage: it does not control large media‑owning business groups and only occasionally holds portfolios that can steer major state advertising budgets.
The party advocates strong, independent public service media, supports VRT’s remit and opposes attempts, particularly from the nationalist right, to curtail or politicise the broadcaster. It has also supported transparency rules for state advertising and media ownership. This pattern suggests a low–medium media‑capture risk, driven more by participation in a system with entrenched patronage practices than by its own behaviour.
Corruption, litigation and institutional integrity
Belgian politics has been marked by recurrent local patronage and corruption cases, and social‑democratic networks have at times been implicated, particularly in older industrial cities. However, in the 2015–2025 period major headline scandals tend to involve a mix of traditional parties rather than singling out Vooruit as uniquely problematic; investigations and convictions cut across ideological lines.
Vooruit has taken part in governance at multiple levels and thus remains exposed to the general risks of clientelism and politicised appointments in public companies. At the same time, party‑finance data show standard reliance on public subsidies and transparent reporting rules rather than opaque corporate media holdings. Overall DMI integrity risk is medium: a party embedded in Belgium’s patronage‑prone structures but not the dominant protagonist of recent corruption waves.
Press freedom, harassment and treatment of media
Vooruit publicly supports press freedom and the independence of VRT and Flemish private media. It has criticised threats and online harassment directed at journalists, particularly from far‑right actors, and backs European and national instruments to protect reporters and public interest journalism, including action against SLAPP suits.
The party sometimes complains about perceived right‑leaning editorial lines in some outlets, but this criticism is framed as media‑critique rather than delegitimisation of journalism as such. There is no record of systematic campaigns by Vooruit to exclude or punish critical media. Its press‑freedom and harassment risk is low.