Ruling Belgium Coalition Takes Hit

Flemish Interest party leader Filip Dewinter, centre, addresses the media with campaigners Anke Van dermeersch, left, and Jurgen Verstrepen, at the party headquarters in Antwerp, Belgium, Sunday Oct. 8, 2006. The ruling party of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt took major losses in local elections across Belgium on Sunday, and the far-right, anti-immigrant Flemish Interest party surged in support, according to initial partial results. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe) (Yves Logghe - AP)

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Early results showed the party of Belgium's prime minister giving ground to a far-right, anti-immigrant party in bellwether local elections Sunday, less than a year before national elections are expected.

Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt sought to put a brave face on the losses of his Liberal Democrats.

"The average trend of the Flemish Liberal Democrats is not so good," Verhofstadt said. "We must acknowledge that the government has had a few bad months and we know that whoever leads faces the most fire."

The biggest winners in Sunday's vote were the right-wing Flemish Interest party and the Christian Democrats.

"We have gone so far ahead. ... We have won spectacularly. We are the winners of this election," said Flemish Interest party Chairman Frank Vanhecke. The party made big gains in almost all the 308 municipal councils across the region of Flanders.

The party attributes its success to efforts to tap into concerns about a perceived rise in crime, degradation of inner-city neighborhoods and an increase in asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.

It expanded well beyond its traditional support base of Antwerp to win the most votes in seven municipalities outside of that city. It was another major victory for a party that has been scorned by the country's political class.

Flemish Interest, which ran on an anti-immigrant platform, has been kept in opposition in Antwerp by an unlikely coalition whose only common cause is keeping the city out of the hands of the far right.

That scenario is likely to be repeated in other areas after Sunday's election. Despite its strong showing overall, the party is unlikely to take part in governing, even in municipalities where it now has the largest number of seats on the city council.

Early results also showed losses for Verhofstadt's Socialist coalition partners in the southern Wallonia region and in the capital region of Brussels.

Verhofstadt had hoped to stem major losses before national elections expected in either May or June and to keep in place his fragile coalition for a run at a third term in office.