National Front (Belgium)

National Front Front national
Leader	Patrick Cocriamont
Founded	1985
Dissolved	2012
Headquarters	National Secretariat rue Tourette 100 Charleroi
Ideology	Nationalism
Political position	Far-right
European affiliation	Alliance of European National Movements
International affiliation	None
European Parliament group	None
Website
http://www.fn.be/
Politics of Belgium Political parties Elections

The National Front (French: Front national) was a francophone Belgian far-right political party. The party's ideology advocated a strong unitary Belgian nationalism, strongly opposed immigration, and reached out to Flemish voters.

The party's acting leader was Patrick Cocriamont ().

In the 2003 federal election, it won one seat in the Chamber of Representatives, with 2% of the vote. It also had two seats in the Senate. A 2006 poll showed that it had the backing of about 9.4% of the Walloon voters. Despite this poll it won in the 10 June 2007 federal elections, 1 out of 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 1 out of 40 seats in the Senate.

The FN was established by Daniel Féret, a former member of Jeune Europe who subsequently was active with the populist Union démocratique du travail (). The party clashed with the Party of New Forces (PFN) from its foundation as Féret sought to distance his group from the far-right but despite his efforts a number of extremist activists soon joined the FN. The party's ideology soon became one of ultra-nationalism, xenophobia, racism and anti-Flemish sentiment, combined with a strong support for neo-liberal economics. They also looked to their French namesake and followed many of their ideas, although the interest was not reciprocated as Jean-Marie Le Pen generally looked elsewhere in Belgium for allies. In 1989 a number of PFN members switched to the FN due to internal difficulties in their party and as a result the FN again shifted policy, abandoning its earlier pro-NATO stance in favour opposition to both the USA and the Soviet Union.

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