I really wish that reporting of elections that used Proportional Representation didn't refer to the biggest party as having "won". It makes absolutely no sense to refer to a party which got 24 of 150 seats (16%) as having "won", and yet I've seen multiple headlines refer to Belgian's right-wing "New Flemish Alliance" as having won the election.
In fact, looking at
the election results from Belgium, it's incredibly balanced:
| Right | 44 |
| Centre Right | 31 |
| Centre | 1 |
| Centre Left | 34 |
| Left | 31 |
| Green | 9 |
Which, if you lump in the Greens on the Left (which they are in Belgium) means that you have 75 on the Right, 74 on the Left, and 1 in the middle. Or 66 in the centre-ish, with their pick of other parties to form a coalition with.
I mean, sure, I'd rather that the deeply unpleasant far right party "Vlamms Belang" *hadn't* won 20 seats. But that still leaves 130 seats that they didn't get.
So when you see scare stories about "The Far Right Is Winning Elections In Europe!" - go and check *how much* of that election they actually won.
If you'd like some sensible coverage you can find it
here![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
