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.
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.
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
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.
Electoral system <noinclude>
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.Electoral system IPU
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.
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) could not 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;Article 65 of the Belgian Constitution snap federal elections would trigger a parliamentary term lasting until the next European Parliament elections.Article 46 of the Belgian Constitution 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
Name Ideology Leader 2014 result Votes (%) Seats Flemish parties N-VA New Flemish Alliance Flemish nationalism Bart De Wever 20.3% CD&V Christian Democratic and Flemish Christian democracy Wouter Beke 11.6% Open Vld Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats Liberalism Gwendolyn Rutten 9.8% sp.a Socialist Party Differently Social democracy John Crombez 8.8% Groen Green Green politics Meyrem Almaci 5.3% VB Flemish Interest Flemish nationalism Tom Van Grieken 3.7% Francophone parties PS Socialist Party Social democracy Elio Di Rupo 11.7% MR Reformist Movement Liberalism Charles Michel 9.6% cdH Humanist Democratic Centre Christian democracy Maxime Prévot 5.0% Ecolo Ecolo Green politics Jean-Marc Nollet &Zakia Khattabi 3.3% DéFI DéFI Regionalism Olivier Maingain 1.8% PP People's Party Right-wing populism Mischaël Modrikamen 1.5% Bilingual parties PVDA–PTB Workers' Party of Belgium Marxism Peter Mertens 3.7%
Lead candidates
The following candidates are the first on the respective party list (lijsttrekker / tête de liste) per constituency.
Dutch-speaking constituencies Party 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 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. A continuation of the "Swedish coalition" (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.
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.
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.
Retiring incumbents The following incumbent members of the Chamber of Representatives announced their retirement from (national) politics: Hans Bonte (sp.a, Flemish Brabant) Peter Dedecker (N-VA, East Flanders) Alain Mathot (PS, Liège) Laurette Onkelinx (PS, Brussels) Goedele Uyttersprot (N-VA, East Flanders) Dirk Van der Maelen (sp.a, East Flanders) Eric Van Rompuy (CD&V, Flemish Brabant) Peter Vanvelthoven (sp.a, Limburg) Jan Vercammen (N-VA, West Flanders)
Opinion polls
Results
Results by region
Flanders
Wallonia
Brussels-Capital
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 distribution of seats among parties resulted as following:
Aftermath
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.Belgian king meets Flemish far right for first time since 1930s, amid fears of 'Vlexit' breakaway The Telegraph, 29 May 2019Election treble spells trouble for Belgium Politico, 27 May 2019
In response to Vlaams Belang's surge in support there was speculation that the N-VA leader Bart De Wever could 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 have made forming a coalition more difficult.
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."
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 had met a representative from a far-right party since 1936, when King Leopold III met the representatives of the Rexist Party.Belgian king's meeting with far-right leader sparks controversy The Guardian, 29 May 2019
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,Koning Filip stelt Johan Vande Lanotte en Didier Reynders aan als informateur VRT, 30 May 2019 after which they were given some more time, with a new deadline of 17 June.Reynders en Vande Lanotte blijven informateur tot 17 juni: "Lange formatie van 2010 overdoen, is niet mogelijk" VRT, 6 June 2019 After this deadline passed, another extension was granted until 1 July,Mission to form Belgian government extended by King Philippe Xinhua, 18 June 2019 and again until 29 JulyInformateurs Vande Lanotte en Reynders werken verder aan preformatienota VRT, 1 July 2019 and one more extension until 9 September.Vande Lanotte en Reynders nog tot 9 september informateur VTM, 29 July 2019