The party is variously described as
socialist and/or
Marxist, with sources also variously describing it as
left-wing or
far-left. It is the furthest left party represented in the
Belgian Federal Parliament. The party advocates for strengthening workers' rights, increasing pensions, and decreasing the retirement age to 65, and supports expanding social programs and the welfare state. It supports increasing taxes on the wealthy and corporations. It is opposed to austerity and
neoliberalism. A central part of the party's program is the "social climate revolution", which seeks to combat both climate change and social inequality. Although the party is in favor of greater ecological policies, the party has been in opposition to restrictions on individual car use, including opposing low emissions zones in
Antwerp city center, paid parking in
Schaerbeek, and increased fines for illegal parking in
Liège. Despite this, the party also advocates for expanding public transit and making public transit free. Elected representatives and full-time staff observe a pay cap indexed to the wages of a "skilled worker", and the excess is donated to the party.
Foreign policy The party abstained from the vote condemning the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine in the
Chamber of Representatives. According to PTB MP
Nabil Boukili, "the diplomatic way is the only possible way to avoid a war". Party spokesman
Raoul Hedebouw said he condemns the invasion of Ukraine but does not think
NATO should be part of the solution. According to political scientist
Steven Van Hecke, in terms of foreign policy, parties such as the PVDA have both a
pacifist and a socioeconomic agenda.
Historical Historically, the party supported
Marxism–Leninism and
Maoism, Political scientist
Pascal Delwit claimed in 2014 that the PVDA still maintains a
Marxist-Leninist line internally, but not to the outside world.
Electoral positioning During the
2019 election campaign, the RePresent research centre — composed of political scientists from five universities (
UAntwerpen,
KU Leuven,
VUB,
UCLouvain and
ULB) — studied the electoral programmes of Belgium's thirteen main political parties. This study classified the parties on two "left-right" axes, from "-5" (
extreme left) to "5" (
extreme right): a "classic" socio-economic axis, which refers to state intervention in the economic process and the degree to which the state should ensure social equality, and a socio-cultural axis, which refers to a divide articulated around an identity-based opposition on themes such as immigration, Europe, crime, the environment, emancipation, etc. The RePresent centre repeated the exercise during the
2024 election campaign for the twelve main parties. The PTB maintained its positioning as the most left-wing Belgian political party on the socio-economic axis (-4.29), and remained on the left — but less so than in 2019 — on the socio-cultural axis (-2.88). ==Organisations==