2019 Belgian federal election

Federal elections were held in Belgium on 26 May 2019, alongside the country's European and regional elections. All 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected from eleven multi-member constituencies.

2019 Belgian federal election

← 2014 26 May 2019 (2019-05-26) 2024 →
All 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives 76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	88.38%
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– N-VA Bart De Wever 16.03 25 −8 Vlaams Belang Tom Van Grieken 11.95 18 +15 PS Elio Di Rupo 9.46 20 −3 CD&V Wouter Beke 8.89 12 −6 PVDA-PTB Peter Mertens 8.62 12 +10 Open Vld Gwendolyn Rutten 8.54 12 −2 MR Charles Michel 7.56 14 −6 sp.a John Crombez 6.71 9 −4 Ecolo Jean-Marc Nollet [fr] & Zakia Khattabi 6.14 13 +7 Groen Meyrem Almaci 6.10 8 +2 cdH Maxime Prévot 3.70 5 −4 DéFI Olivier Maingain 2.22 2 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Results of the election by constituency Federal Government before Federal Government after Michel II Government Wilmès II Government

The far right-wing Vlaams Belang (VB) saw a resurgence in Flanders, and with the New Flemish Alliance (NVA), parties subscribing to Flemish separatism and nationalism obtained nearly 50% of the vote in Flanders. The Belgian coalition of N-VA, CD&V, MR and Open VLD lost more than a quarter of its seats, the worst government punishment in 20 years.^[1]

In addition, gains for the far-left Workers' Party of Belgium (PVDA-PTB), and the green Ecolo party in Wallonia occurred. Overall, traditional parties suffered losses in both regions.

Background

Main articles: 2014 Belgian government formation and Michel I Government

Following the 2014 elections, a centre-right government consisting of N-VA, CD&V, Open Vld and MR was formed, led by Prime Minister Charles Michel (MR). This government coalition was unique in several aspects: the N-VA participated for the first time, the MR was the only French-speaking party, and the French-speaking Socialist Party was not part of the government for the first time in 25 years.

Local elections were held on 14 October 2018. As such, the 2019 simultaneous regional, federal and European elections were held only several months after the local elections.

In early December 2018, a political crisis emerged regarding the Global Compact for Migration, which was supposed to be signed but sparked instead opposition from government party N-VA. As the three other government parties as well as a large majority in parliament supported the compact, N-VA left the government and the three other parties continued briefly as a minority cabinet (Michel II) with an unclear status. Prime Minister Michel ultimately offered his resignation to the King on 18 December 2018, who accepted it three days later. As regular elections were scheduled for May 2019 anyway, snap elections were only favoured by N-VA and Vlaams Belang and did not happen, and the minority cabinet continued as a caretaker government until the elections.^[2]

Electoral system

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   Flanders

   Wallonia

   Brussels

The 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected in 11 multi-member constituencies, being the ten provinces and Brussels, with between 4 and 24 seats. Seats are allocated using the D'Hondt method, with an electoral threshold of 5% per constituency.^[3]

Representatives elected from the five Flemish Region provinces, Antwerp (24), East Flanders (20), Flemish Brabant (15), Limburg (12) and West Flanders (16), automatically belonged to the Dutch-speaking language group in parliament, whereas those elected from the five provinces of Wallonia, Hainaut (18), Liège (15), Luxembourg (4), Namur (6) and Walloon Brabant (5), formed the French-speaking language group. The 15 members elected in Brussels could choose to join either group. Apportionment of seats is done every ten years in accordance with population data, last by royal order of 31 January 2013.^[4]

The 60-member Senate is composed of 50 representatives from the regional and community parliaments, plus 10 co-opted senators proportionally divided among parties based on the result of the federal election.

All Belgian citizens aged 18 or over were obligated to participate in the election. Non-Belgian citizens residing in Belgium (regardless of EU citizenship) couldn't vote, whereas Belgian citizens living abroad could register to vote.

Date

The 2011–14 state reform changed several aspects regarding federal elections. Starting with the May 2014 election, which coincided with European Parliament and regional elections, the federal parliament is elected for a five-year term rather than a four-year term.

The federal elections would from then on always coincide with the European Parliament elections;^[5] snap federal elections would trigger a parliamentary term lasting until the next European Parliament elections.^[6] However, as of 2017, a law needed for this to take effect had not yet been enacted. Given the five-year term for all three elections, they all coincided in 2019 regardless, as no snap federal elections were called.

Additionally, de facto practice is to formally dissolve parliament and trigger new elections by Declaration of Revision of the Constitution shortly before regular expiry of the parliamentary term.

Parties and leaders

Main article: Political parties in Belgium

Name			Ideology	Leader	2014 result
					Votes (%)	Seats
Flemish parties
	N-VA	New Flemish Alliance Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie	Flemish nationalism	Bart De Wever	20.3%	33 / 150
	CD&V	Christian Democratic and Flemish Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams	Christian democracy	Wouter Beke	11.6%	18 / 150
	Open Vld	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten	Liberalism	Gwendolyn Rutten	9.8%	14 / 150
	sp.a	Socialist Party Differently Socialistische Partij Anders	Social democracy	John Crombez	8.8%	13 / 150
	Groen	Green Groen	Green politics	Meyrem Almaci	5.3%	6 / 150
	VB	Flemish Interest Vlaams Belang	Flemish nationalism	Tom Van Grieken	3.7%	3 / 150
Francophone parties
	PS	Socialist Party Parti Socialiste	Social democracy	Elio Di Rupo	11.7%	23 / 150
	MR	Reformist Movement Mouvement Réformateur	Liberalism	Charles Michel	9.6%	20 / 150
	cdH	Humanist Democratic Centre Centre démocrate humaniste	Christian democracy	Maxime Prévot	5.0%	9 / 150
	Ecolo	Ecolo Ecolo	Green politics	Jean-Marc Nollet & Zakia Khattabi	3.3%	6 / 150
	DéFI	DéFI DéFI	Regionalism	Olivier Maingain	1.8%	2 / 150
	PP	People's Party Parti populaire	Right-wing populism	Mischaël Modrikamen	1.5%	1 / 150
Bilingual parties
	PVDA–PTB	Workers' Party of Belgium Partij van de Arbeid van België Parti du Travail de Belgique	Marxism	Peter Mertens	3.7%	2 / 150

Lead candidates

The following candidates are the first on the respective party list (lijsttrekker / tête de liste) per constituency.

Dutch-speaking constituencies

Party		Antwerp	East Flanders	Flemish Brabant	Limburg	West Flanders	Brussels
	CD&V	Servais Verherstraeten	Pieter De Crem	Koen Geens	Wouter Beke	Hendrik Bogaert	Sabine de Bethune
	Groen	Kristof Calvo	Stefaan Van Hecke	Jessika Soors	Barbara Creemers	Wouter De Vriendt	—
	N-VA	Jan Jambon	Anneleen Van Bossuyt	Theo Francken	Zuhal Demir	Sander Loones	Elias Kartout
	Open Vld	Christian Leysen	Alexander De Croo	Maggie De Block	Patrick Dewael	Vincent Van Quickenborne	Mimi Crahaij
	PVDA	Peter Mertens	Steven De Vuyst	Bea Knaepen	Ayse Yigit	Ilona Vandenberghe
	sp.a	Yasmine Kherbache	Joris Vandenbroucke	Karin Jiroflée	Meryame Kitir	John Crombez
	Vlaams Belang	Tom Van Grieken	Barbara Pas	Dries Van Langenhove	Annick Ponthier	Wouter Vermeersch

French-speaking constituencies

Party		Hainaut	Liège	Luxembourg	Namur	Walloon Brabant	Brussels
	cdH	Catherine Fonck	Vanessa Matz	René Collin	Maxime Prévot	Olivier Vanham	Joëlle Milquet
	DéFI	Alexandra Dupire			Pierre-Yves Dupuis		François De Smet
	Ecolo	Jean-Marc Nollet	Sarah Schlitz	Cécile Thibaut	Georges Gilkinet	Simon Moutquin	Zakia Khattabi
	MR	Denis Ducarme	Daniel Bacquelaine	Benoit Piedboeuf	David Clarinval	Charles Michel	Didier Reynders
	PP
	PS	Elio Di Rupo	Frédéric Daerden			André Flahaut	Ahmed Laaouej
	PTB	Marco Van Hees	Raoul Hedebouw		Thierry Warmoes		Maria Vindevoghel

Campaign

Despite leaving the government coalition in late 2018, it was the explicit ambition of N-VA to continue governing after the May 2019 election. In January 2019, the party put forward ex-minister Jan Jambon as candidate for Prime Minister should the party enter a coalition.^[7] A continuation of the "Swedish coalition"^[a] (N-VA, MR, CD&V and Open Vld), potentially expanded with cdH, was a likely scenario. Outgoing Prime Minister Charles Michel (MR) was candidate to continue in his position.^[8]

Meanwhile, the French-speaking Socialist Party (PS) had the ambition to re-enter government as well, or "re-conquer" as formulated by leader Elio Di Rupo, after being in the opposition at federal level and being ousted from the Walloon government.^[9]

Additionally, there was speculation that the Flemish liberal and green parties (Open Vld and Groen) would favour cooperating, given Groen's recent rise and their local governing coalitions in cities like Mechelen, Gent and Oostende. However, their French-speaking counterparts, MR and Ecolo, are politically and ideologically further apart.^[10][11]

Retiring incumbents

The following incumbent members of the Chamber of Representatives announced their retirement from (national) politics:

• Hans Bonte (sp.a, Flemish Brabant)^[12]
• Peter Dedecker (N-VA, East Flanders)^[13]
• Alain Mathot (PS, Liège)^[14]
• Laurette Onkelinx (PS, Brussels)^[15]
• Goedele Uyttersprot (N-VA, East Flanders)^[16]
• Dirk Van der Maelen (sp.a, East Flanders)^[17]
• Eric Van Rompuy (CD&V, Flemish Brabant)^[18]
• Peter Vanvelthoven (sp.a, Limburg)^[19]
• Jan Vercammen (N-VA, West Flanders)^[20]

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 2019 Belgian federal election

Results

See also: List of members of the Chamber of Representatives of Belgium, 2019–24

Map of the largest party in each municipality

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	New Flemish Alliance	1,086,787	16.03	–4.23	25	–8
	Vlaams Belang	810,177	11.95	+8.28	18	+15
	Socialist Party	641,623	9.46	–2.21	20	–3
	Christian Democratic and Flemish	602,520	8.89	–2.72	12	–6
	Workers' Party of Belgium	584,621	8.62	+4.90	12	+10
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	579,334	8.54	–1.24	12	–2
	Reformist Movement	512,825	7.56	–2.08	14	–6
	Socialist Party Different	455,034	6.71	–2.12	9	–4
	Ecolo	416,452	6.14	+2.84	13	+7
	Groen	413,836	6.10	+0.78	8	+2
	Humanist Democratic Centre	250,861	3.70	–1.28	5	–4
	DéFI	150,394	2.22	+0.42	2	0
	People's Party	75,096	1.11	–0.39	0	–1
	DierAnimal	47,733	0.70	New	0	New
	Destexhe Lists	42,712	0.63	New	0	New
	Citizen Collective	21,092	0.31	New	0	New
	La Droite	15,075	0.22	–0.16	0	0
	Nation	10,583	0.16	0.00	0	0
	Les Belges d'Abord	10,463	0.15	New	0	New
	Agir	7,598	0.11	New	0	New
	Pirate Party	7,521	0.11	–0.23	0	0
	Democratic Solidarity Appeal	5,949	0.09	New	0	New
	Lutte Ouvrière [nl]	5,735	0.08	+0.03	0	0
	PRO De Burgerlobby	5,682	0.08	New	0	New
	Wallonie Insoumise	5,354	0.08	New	0	New
	BUB Belgische Unie	4,513	0.07	New	0	New
	Peace and Solidarity Party	3,217	0.05	New	0	New
	B.U.B	2,098	0.03	New	0	New
	de coöperatie	1,732	0.03	New	0	New
	Volt	1,669	0.02	New	0	New
	Communist Party of Belgium	1,626	0.02	New	0	New
	Turquoise	626	0.01	New	0	New
Total		6,780,538	100.00	–	150	0
Valid votes		6,780,538	93.93
Invalid/blank votes		438,095	6.07
Total votes		7,218,633	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,167,709	88.38
Source: IBZ

Results by region

Flanders

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	New Flemish Alliance	1,086,787	25.56	25	−8
	Vlaams Belang	810,177	19.05	18	+15
	Christian Democratic and Flemish	602,520	14.17	12	−6
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	579,334	13.62	12	−2
	Socialist Party Different	455,034	10.70	9	−4
	Groen	413,836	9.73	8	+2
	Workers' Party of Belgium	236,897	5.57	3	+3
Others		67,652	1.59	–	–
Total		4,252,237	100.00	87	–

Wallonia

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Socialist Party	641,623	25.38	20	−3
	Reformist Movement	512,825	20.28	14	−6
	Ecolo	416,452	16.47	13	+7
	Workers' Party of Belgium	347,724	13.75	9	+7
	Humanist Democratic Centre	250,861	9.92	5	−4
	DéFI	150,394	5.95	2	0
	People's Party	75,096	2.97	0	−1
	Destexhe Lists	42,712	1.69	0	New
Others		90,614	3.58	–	–
Total		2,528,301	100.00	63	–

Brussels-Capital

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Ecolo–Groen	108,144	21.57	4	+2
	Socialist Party–Socialist Party Different	100,195	19.98	3	−2
	Reformist Movement	87,594	17.47	3	−1
	Workers' Party of Belgium	61,589	12.28	2	+2
	DéFI	51,544	10.28	2	0
	Humanist Democratic Centre	29,161	5.82	1	−1
	New Flemish Alliance	15,983	3.19	0	0
	Destexhe Lists	12,879	2.57	0	New
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	11,511	2.30	–	0
	People's Party	8,455	1.69	–	0
	Vlaams Belang	7,824	1.56	0	0
	Christian Democratic and Flemish	6,580	1.31	0	0
Total		501,459	100.00	15	–

Senate

Since the sixth state reform of 2011, the Senate is no longer directly elected. The regional parliaments elect 50 senators based on the results of the concurrent regional elections (the Flemish Parliament elects 29, the Parliament of the French Community elects ten, the Walloon Parliament elects eight, the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region elects two Francophone senators and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community elects one). The elected senators in turn co-opt 10 senators (six Dutch-speaking and four Francophone), making a total of 60 senators.

The distributiuon of seats among parties resulted as following:^[21]

Party		Seats
		Elected	Co-opted	Total	+/–
	New Flemish Alliance	8	1	9	–3
	Vlaams Belang	6	1	7	+5
	Socialist Party	6	1	7	–2
	Reformist Movement[b]	6	1	7	–1
	Workers' Party[c]	4	1	5	+5
	Christian Democratic and Flemish	4	1	5	–3
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	4	1	5	0
	Ecolo	4	1	5	+2
	Socialist Party Different	3	1	4	–1
	Groen	3	1	4	+1
	Humanist Democratic Centre	2	0	2	–2
Total		50	10	60	0

Aftermath

Main article: 2019–20 Belgian government formation

The election once again exposed the deep linguistic, ethnic and regional divisions of Belgium, with the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders strongly voting for right-wing Flemish nationalist and separatist parties, and the French-speaking region of Wallonia strongly voting left.^[22][23]

In response to Vlaams Belang's surge in support there has been some speculation that the N-VA leader Bart De Wever may break the Cordon sanitaire imposed on the party, resulting in the two Flemish nationalist parties joining forces, by refusing to rule out talks with the VB, as their strong results could make forming a coalition more difficult.^[24][25]

The People's Party, a small right-wing French-speaking party, dissolved on 18 June through an internal party vote in response to losing their only seat in the elections. Former party leader Mischaël Modrikamen blamed the "systematic exclusion of the People's Party from the political and media debate."^[26]

In the days following the election, King Philippe held consultations with all main party leaders, including Vlaams Belang party leader Tom Van Grieken. According to The Guardian, it was the first time a Belgian monarch met a representative from a far-right party since 1936, when King Leopold III met the representatives of the Rexist Party.^[27]

On 30 May, King Philippe appointed Johan Vande Lanotte (sp.a) and Didier Reynders (MR), two experienced politicians with a long period of service, as informateurs. They reported on their progress by 6 June as expected,^[28] after which they were given some more time, with a new deadline of 17 June.^[29] After this deadline passed, another extension was granted until 1 July,^[30] and again until 29 July^[31] and one more extension until 9 September.^[32]

On 24 August the Belgian government decided to appoint Didier Reynders as European Commissioner.^[33] On 4 October 2019, King Philippe announced the end of the first phase of federal government formation talks, with the informateurs advising that a government of the N-VA, the Socialist Party and the Greens was the best option to pursue. The informateurs will report back to the king of the 4 November, following which a formateur will be appointed to introduce the third stage of government formation.^[34]

On 4 November, the two new informateurs, Rudy Demotte and Geert Bourgeois, offered their resignations to the King, as they could not break the political deadlock.^[35]

On 17 March 2020, the successor of Michel II Government, the Wilmès Government, had its mandate extended. Most parliamentary parties provided them external support in order to manage the coronavirus pandemic. Informal talks on forming a new government began in June 2020.^[36] Wilmès II government was eventually replaced by the permanent seven-party coalition — De Croo Government in October, with Wilmès becoming one of the deputy prime ministers.

See also

• 2019 Belgian regional elections

Notes

1. Named after blue for the Reform Movement and the Flemish Liberals and Democrats, yellow for the New Flemish Alliance and the cross for Christian Democratic and Flemish
2. Elected members included one German-speaking senator from the Party for Freedom and Progress.
3. The elected members included three Francophone senators and one Dutch-speaking one; the co-opted member was Francophone.