THE far-right Vlaams Blok inflicted a humiliating defeat on Guy Verhofstadt, the country’s Prime Minister, yesterday as it trounced his Flemish Liberal Party and made sweeping gains in the northern part of the country.

The Vlaams Blok’s success in regional elections may make it impossible for Mr Verhofstadt to continue as leader of his coalition federal Government and in effect ended any chance he had of succeeding Romano Prodi as European Commission President.

As the votes of 7.5 million Belgians were being counted last night, the stark political divide between Dutch-speaking Flemings in the north of the country and the Francophone Walloons in the south became clear. In Flanders, the clear victors from the elections to the regional parliament were the Vlaams Blok, whose vigorous anti-immigrant campaigns led a Flemish court earlier this year to condemn the party as racist.

Gaining nine seats, it registered its best results and emerged as the second largest party with just four fewer deputies than the opposition centre-right Christian Democrats, who won 35 seats. Even more humiliating for Mr Verhofstadt was the fact his Liberal Party was pushed into fourth place by the Socialists.

While Flanders swung to the right, Socialists made striking advances in the poorer, southern part of the country. They easily emerged as the dominant force, gaining eight seats. The Greens continued their political slide.

Times Recommends

• Third of Muslim students back killings
• Curfew tames feral yobs of Cornwall
• £3,000-a-month drug free abroad