1 in 4 Belgians ready to vote for another party for animal welfare reasons

The Ipsos survey carried out in April 2024 at the request of GAIA highlights the importance Belgians place on animal protection:

• Nine out of ten Belgians consider animal welfare to be important, in the same way as other major issues or challenges facing society (89% of Walloons, 86% of Brussels residents).
• Nine out of ten Belgians believe that political parties should support measures to improve animal welfare (91% of Walloons, 89% of Brussels residents).
• One in four Belgians (24% of Walloons, 26% of Brussels residents) would change their vote if the party they are considering supporting did not take into account the animal welfare measures that are important to them.
• One Belgian in four (27% of Walloons, 24% of Brussels residents) considers animal welfare to be important when choosing a political party. This shows that animal welfare is a more important issue for voters than foreign policy, equal opportunities and institutional reform.

The survey also identifies the three measures deemed most important by Belgians at all levels of government:

1. Improving living conditions on broiler farms (93%)
2. An end to puppy mills and the import of puppies from Eastern Europe (93%)
3. A ban on the marketing of products that go against animal welfare (92%)

Finally, the survey reveals that eight out of ten Brussels residents (80%) are in favour of a ban on slaughter without stunning in the Brussels Region.

What is the position of political parties on cage farming, the gassing of chicks or the castration of piglets?

To answer these questions and many others, GAIA recently sent the presidents of all political parties a detailed questionnaire containing 88 questions to ask them about their stances on animal welfare, whether at regional, federal or European level. The responses from all the parties are available on JeVoteAnimaux.be.

What emerges from our questionnaire is that on the French-speaking side, certain measures are unanimously supported by political parties, such as banning the gassing of chicks in Wallonia, improving the living conditions of broiler chickens at European level, introducing a positive list of species at all levels of government, and adopting a strategy to reduce animal experimentation at all levels of government.

On the JeVoteAnimaux.be website, voters will be able to find out :

• the positions of the various political parties on major animal welfare issues;
• Our 2024 Memorandum, which sets out GAIA's animal protection priorities for the next parliamentary term;
• a list of candidates for the elections on 9 June 2024 who gave personal answers to questions relating to the major issues.

Finally, on Wednesday 22 May, GAIA will unveil its evaluation of the performance of the three Animal Welfare Ministers on JeVoteAnimaux.be. Each minister will receive a score out of twenty based on their track record on animal welfare. The three assessment reports will be published in full on our site.