Belgian federal election, 2007

Belgium federal election, 2007
	← outgoing members elected members →
All 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives ; 40 of 71 seats in the Senate ; respectively 76 and 36 seats needed for a majority
	Colours denote the winning party in each electoral district, as shown in the table of results.
Federal Government before election; Verhofstadt II ; VLD-MR-PS-sp.a-Spirit	Elected Federal Government ; Verhofstadt III (interim); Open VLD-MR-PS-CD&V-cdH

Last updated March 13, 2019

2007–11 Belgian political crisis

Timeline 2007 elections 2007–08 government formation Verhofstadt III (interim) Leterme I Van Rompuy I Leterme II The Leterme I Government was the federal government of Belgium from 20 March 2008 to 22 December 2008. It took office when the Flemish Christian democrat Yves Leterme (CD&V) was sworn in as Prime Minister. It followed the Belgian general election of 2007 and comprised five parties: the Dutch-speaking Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V), the Dutch-speaking Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats, the French-speaking liberal Reformist Movement (MR), the French-speaking Socialist Party (PS) and the French-speaking Humanist Democratic Centre (CDH). The Van Rompuy Government was the federal government of Belgium from 30 December 2008 until 15 November 2009. Herman Van Rompuy was nominated as the first President of the European Council and resigned shortly after as Premier. It took office when the Flemish Christian Democrat Herman Van Rompuy was sworn in as Prime Minister after the Leterme I Government fell on 22 December 2008. The Leterme II Government was the federal government of Belgium from 25 November 2009 to 26 April 2010, and the caretaker government until 6 December 2011. It took office when the Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme (CD&V) was sworn in as Prime Minister. It followed the Van Rompuy I Government which ended when Herman Van Rompuy became the first President of the European Council. It comprised five parties: the Dutch-speaking Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V), the Dutch-speaking Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats, the French-speaking liberal Reformist Movement (MR), the French-speaking Socialist Party (PS) and the French-speaking Humanist Democratic Centre (CDH). 2010 elections 2010–11 government formation Di Rupo I Sixth state reform Following the Belgian general election held on 13 June 2010, a process of cabinet formation started in Belgium. The election produced a very fragmented political landscape, with 11 parties elected to the Chamber of Representatives, none of which won more than 20% of the seats. The Flemish-Nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the largest party in Flanders and the country as a whole, controlled 27 of 150 seats in the lower chamber. The Francophone Socialist Party (PS), the largest in Wallonia, controlled 26 seats. Cabinet negotiations continued for a long time. On 1 June 2011, Belgium matched the record for time taken to form a new democratic government after an election, at 353 days, held until then by Cambodia in 2003–2004. On 11 October 2011, the final agreement for institutional reform was presented to the media. A government coalition was named on 5 December 2011 and sworn in after a total of 541 days of negotiations and formation on 6 December 2011, and 589 days without an elected government with Elio Di Rupo named Prime Minister of the Di Rupo I Government. The Di Rupo Government was the federal cabinet of Belgium sworn in on 6 December 2011, after a record-breaking 541 days of negotiations following the June 2010 elections. The government included social democrats (sp.a/PS), Christian democrats (CD&V/cdH) and liberals, respectively of the Dutch and French language groups. The government notably excluded the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the Flemish nationalist party which achieved a plurality and became the largest party. Its absence, together with the unwillingness of Open Vld to enter into an eight-party coalition that included the green parties, caused the government coalition to lack a majority in the Dutch language group. It was the first time that the Belgian prime minister had been openly gay, as Di Rupo became the world's first male openly gay head of government. Elio Di Rupo became the first native French-speaking prime minister since 1979 and the first prime minister from Wallonia since 1974 and first socialist prime minister since 1974. The sixth state reform in the federal kingdom of Belgium is the result after the 2010–2011 Belgian government formation, with 541 days of negotiations the longest ever in Belgium and possibly the world. The agreement was made among the Christian-democratic CD&V and cdH, social-democratic sp.a and PS, liberal Open Vld and MR and ecologist Groen! and Ecolo, each respectively a Flemish and French-speaking party. The first six parties, therefore not including the green parties, then formed the Di Rupo I Government. The Flemish nationalist party New Flemish Alliance, which became the largest after the 2010 elections, is notably not part of the agreement nor of the government coalition. The 2007–2008 Belgian government formation followed the general election of 10 June 2007, and comprised a period of negotiation in which the Flemish parties Flemish Liberal Democratic, Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) and New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), and the French-speaking parties Reformist Movement (MR), Democratic Front of Francophones (FDF) and Humanist Democratic Centre (CdH) negotiated to form a government coalition. The negotiations were characterized by the disagreement between the Dutch- and French-speaking parties about the need for and nature of a constitutional reform. According to some, this political conflict could have led to a partition of Belgium. The Verhofstadt III government was an interim Belgian government inaugurated on December 21, 2007 and lasting until 23 March 2008. It was led by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt government and contained representatives from the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats, Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V), the Francophone Socialists (PS), the Francophone Liberals (MR) and Francophone Christian Democrats (CDH).
See also Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde Partition of Belgium State reform in Belgium Politics of Belgium Cabinet of Belgium The area within Belgium known as Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde encompasses the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region, which coincides with the arrondissement of Brussels-Capital and the surrounding Dutch-speaking area of Halle-Vilvoorde, which in turn coincides with the arrondissement of Halle-Vilvoorde. Halle-Vilvoorde contains several municipalities with language facilities, i.e. municipalities where French-speaking people form a considerable part of the population and therefore have special language rights. The partition of Belgium is a hypothetical situation which has been discussed by both Belgian and international media envisioning a split of the country along linguistic divisions, with each of the Flemish Community (Flanders) and the French-speaking Community (Wallonia) either becoming independent states or joining, respectively, The Netherlands and France. Both communities currently have a large degree of autonomy within the Belgian federation. The term State reform in the Belgian context refers to the ongoing process of seeking and finding constitutional and legal solutions to the problems and tensions that exist among the different segments of the Belgian population, mostly between the Dutch-speakers of Flanders and the French-speakers of Wallonia. In general, Belgium has evolved from a unitary state to a federal state with communities, regions, and language areas.

The 2007 Belgian federal election took place on Sunday 10 June 2007. Voters went to the polls in order to elect new members for the Chamber of Representatives and Senate.

Eligible voters were Belgian citizens 18 years and older. There was a legal electoral threshold of 5% for political parties to meet to receive representation, but in several election districts the real electoral threshold is higher than the legal, due to the small number of seats to be elected in the particular district. The 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected from 11 electoral districts. The 40 Senate members were elected from the Dutch (25) and Francophone (15) electoral colleges.

Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Western Europe. It is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to the southwest, and the North Sea to the northwest. It covers an area of 30,688 square kilometres (11,849 sq mi) and has a population of more than 11.4 million. The capital and largest city is Brussels; other major cities are Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi and Liège.

Of the Flemish parties, the alliance of Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V) and the New-Flemish Alliance (N-VA) received an increased share of the vote from the previous election, held in 2003. The CD&V/N-VA list was headed by Yves Leterme, and became the largest political formation in Belgium, thus leading the coalition talks for a new government.^[1] Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang) received more votes than in the previous election, but lost one seat. Green! was able to return to parliament and newcomers List Dedecker (Lijst Dedecker) surprised most by immediately grabbing six seats, including one in the Senate. Prime minister Guy Verhofstadt's "purple coalition," consisting of his Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) alliance list and Socialist Party – Different (SP.A/SPIRIT), was punished in the election, with the SP.A/SPIRIT alliance losing somewhat more than Verhofstadt's Open VLD alliance. The day after the election, Verhofstadt handed in the resignation of his government to King Albert II.^[2]^[3] SP.A leader Johan Vande Lanotte resigned from his leadership position as well that day.^[4]

The Francophone situation did not mirror its Flemish counterpart. While Verhofstadt's Open VLD struggled, its Francophone sister party Mouvement Réformateur managed to defeat the long-dominant Parti Socialiste (PS), although the PS remained strong in Hainaut and Liège. The Humanist Democratic Centre brought in a positive result as well, but the biggest gains were for the environmentalist party Ecolo.

The overall outcome of the elections was that the liberal fraction (MR, VLD) became the largest group in parliament with, followed by the Christian Democrats (CD&V, Cdh) and N-VA with 40 seats. The electoral alliance between the Flemish CD&V and N-VA parties became the biggest single parliamentary grouping (25 seats for CD&V and 5 for N-VA).

Background

The previous general election in 2003 had resulted in a coalition between the socialist parties SP.a/Spirit (Flemish) and the Parti Socialiste (Francophone), and the centrist liberal-democratic parties VLD/Vivant (Flemish) and MR (Francophone), with Guy Verhofstadt of the VLD to retaining his position of Prime Minister of Belgium until 2007.

Parties

Only parties who fielded candidates for the Belgian Senate are listed.

Flemish parties (Dutch speaking)

These Flemish parties field candidates in the regions of Flanders and the partially bilingual electoral district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.

CD&V/N-VA

The Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V) is a Christian Democratic party that has formed an alliance with the Flemish nationalist party New-Flemish Alliance (N-VA). Most polls in the run-up to the election suggested that the alliance would win the election and become the largest political force in Flanders. It is led by Yves Leterme, current prime minister of the Flemish Region and Community.

Having become the largest political party in the Belgian Chamber after the 2007 election, the alliance will become the fulcrum of the coalition talks for a new government. Commentators suggest that coalition talks will be difficult, as most Francophone parties see the alliance as being overly Flemish-dominated.

VB

It was the first time that the Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang, VB) had taken part in federal elections under its new name. Ostracized by all other political parties because of its views on foreigners and immigration, the VB is unlikely to take part in a new government. The VB's lists also included members of the right-liberal Flemish Liberal Independent Tolerant and Transparent party (VLOTT) of Hugo Coveliers.

SP.A-Spirit

The Socialistische Partij Anders is a social-democratic party and has formed a cartel list with the Flemish regionalist and left liberal party Spirit. Like their coalition partner VLD, they lost heavily in the election, which prompted SP.A party leader Johan Vande Lanotte to step down. Vande Lanotte made it also clear that the alliance will not take part in a federal government whose sole concern is state reform.

Open VLD

Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) is the alliance list of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD) of prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, and the small liberal political parties Vivant (left-liberal) and Liberal Appeal (Liberaal Appèl) (right-liberal).

The VLD has seen some infighting in the last years, resulting in two prominent members leaving the party, Hugo Coveliers (VLOTT) and Jean-Marie Dedecker (Lijst Dedecker). After the 2006 municipal elections, the party had tried to revamp itself with the newly named Open VLD cartel, under direction of noted political strategist Noël Slangen.

Groen!

Groen! is an ecological party, and the successor of Agalev. It hoped to make a return to the federal legislature after being wiped out in the 2003 general election. They managed to return to the Belgian parliament with four House seats and one senate seat, but their result of 6.3% was below expectations.^[5]

LDD

List Dedecker (Lijst Dedecker) is a liberal offshoot of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats, founded by Belgian Senator Jean-Marie Dedecker and Boudewijn Bouckaert, chairman of the Nova Civitas think tank. The party surprised some who doubted it would clear the 5% electoral threshold by receiving 6.3% of the Flemish vote.

PVDA+

The Workers Party of Belgium (Partij van de Arbeid van België) is a radical left wing party, of Maoist origin. Its lists also contain independent candidates. The PVDA almost doubled their votes, from 0.5% to 0.9%.

CAP

The Committee for Another Policy (Comité voor een Andere Politiek) is a bilingual left wing political movement, consisting of trade union militants, and political militants of communist, Trotskyist and socialist origin. It was formed in 2006 as a reaction to the more centrist course of the SP.a. Former SP.a-representative Jef Sleeckx is one of the co-founders. These elections were the first the movement participated in. They got 0.4% of the votes in Flanders.

Francophone parties (French speaking)

These Francophone parties fielded candidates in the Walloon Region and in the electoral district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.

PS

The Parti Socialiste (PS) is a social-democratic party that took part in the Verhofstadt I Government and the Verhofstadt II Government. It is unlikely that the PS will deliver Belgium's next prime minister, the last Francophone prime minister was Paul Vanden Boeynants in 1978-79. Largest competitor of the PS is the Mouvement Réformateur (MR), which just recently broke with the PS in Charleroi, after PS aldermen were charged with corruption.

MR

The Mouvement Réformateur is a liberal party. It is a fusion of the Liberal Reformist Party (PRL), the French-linguistic party Democratic Front of Francophones (FDF) and a breakaway fraction of the Christian democratic Citizens' Movement for Change (MCC). It had taken part in the federal government of Guy Verhofstadt, which included MR leader Didier Reynders as finance minister.

The MR clearly won the elections in the French-speaking Walloon region, and the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region, ousting the previously dominant Parti Socialiste. The MR campaigned on three major fronts: the need for an alternative to the PS, entangled in various scandals of corruption and accused of poor governance leading to unemployment and anachronistic political systems; the need for a new fiscal reform; lowering taxes and government grip on the economy; and finally friendliness and cooperation with its Flemish counterpart, Open VLD.

cdH

The Centre Démocrate Humaniste is a Christian democratic party. They made a small advance (0.4%) in these elections and finished with 15.8% of the votes.

Ecolo

Ecolo is a Green party. It made the largest gains of the 2007 election among Francophone parties and went from 7.5% to 12.8%.

FN

The Front National is a Franco-nationalist political movement known for its tough stances on immigration. They gained 5.6% of the vote, the same as in 2003.

CAP

The Committee for Another Policy (Comité pour une Autre Politique) is a bilingual left wing political movement, consisting of trade union militants, and political militants of communist, Trotskyist and socialist origin. It was formed in 2006 as a reaction to the more centrist course of the PS and the SP.a. Former FGTB-chairman Georges Debunne is one of the co-founders. These elections were the first the movement participated in. The party got 0.2% of the votes in Hainaut and Liège, the two provinces where its candidates stood.

Issues

Good governance

CD&V used the theme of good governance as a breaking point against SP.a and VLD. The party claimed that unlike in the Flemish Government, where CD&V leader Leterme heads a tripartite government, with CD&V, VLD and SP.a, the federal government lacked good governance. SP.a and VLD tried to counter this charge with similar examples in the Flemish Government of practices which CD&V accused them of.

Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde and constitutionality

With the federal elections looming, the problem of the electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (B-H-V) re-emerged. Because the federal government failed to comply with a ruling of the Court of Arbitration which declared the provincial electoral districts compared to the two remaining arrondisemental ones in the former province of Brabant unconstitutional. According to the ruling of the Court of Arbitration the current situation would make federal elections impossible after 24 June 2007, so the new government will have to solve the situation. Several mayors in the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde area have threatened and actually have refused to compile the lists of electors. The governor took over their task.

Professor and constitutional expert Paul Van Orshoven from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven declared that the elections would be unconstitutional. According to Van Orshoven there were two problems:

As the previous election was held on Sunday 18 May 2003, the final date to hold elections (four years from the previous) would be Sunday, 13 May 2007.
The Court of Arbitration gave the government the time to fix the B-H-V problem until the next elections. That hasn't happened, which means that the election results could be declared void.

Corruption in the Walloon Region

During the campaign new irregularities and corruption in PS-lead Charleroi emerged. The MR started using this as an example of why things in Wallonia under PS management were bad. The campaign became hostile and personal attacks between various MR, CdH and PS leaders dominated the campaign.

Armenian Genocide

In the run-up to the election, Johan Vande Lanotte, leader of the Socialist Party – Different, refused to acknowledge the Turkish genocide on its Armenian minority in the midst of a controversy about the strong allegiance to Turkey expressed in Turkish at a meeting by a Turkish-Belgian CD&V Senate candidate, Ergün Top,^[6]^[7] but also in the aftermath of a similar problem aroused during the campaign for the Dutch general election a few months earlier. The position of Yves Leterme (CD&V) on this issue was unclear at first, but he later confided to the Flemish parliament that he does acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.^[8]^[9]

In 1998, the Belgian Senate had already passed a resolution acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, including the support of SP (later sp.a) and CVP (later CD&V) senators.^[10]^[11]

Polls

The polls conducted by the Stemmenkampioen site of Het Laatste Nieuws and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel , yield the following overall result for Flanders, compared to the 2003 Senate elections. De Standaard and the VRT conducted a similar poll in November 2006, in March 2007 (the first poll in which Lijst Dedecker, a Flemish party founded in January 2007, was measured) and in May 2007.

The percentages are relative to that region.

Party/Alliance	General elections 05/2003 (%)	Het Laatste Nieuws 01/2007 (%)	De Standaard/VRT 11/2006 (%) ^[12]	De Standaard/VRT 03/2007 (%) ^[13]	Le Soir/RTBF 04/2007 (%)	De Standaard/VRT 21-05-2007 (%) ^[14]	Le Soir/RTBF 06/2007 (%)	De Standaard/VRT 06/2007 (%)
Flanders
CD&V - N-VA	25	30	32,7	30,4	29,6	29,9	29,7	29,9
Vlaams Belang	17	20	21,9	20,8	21,9	20,7	21,6	21,4
SP.a - Spirit	25	17	19,7	20,7	20,3	20,4	19,7	19,4
VLD - Vivant	24	15	17,3	16,9	16,6	17,3	17,3	17,7
Groen!	3	5	7,6	7,6	6,7	8,4	7,4	7,7
Lijst Dedecker	N/A	N/A	N/A	3,2	2,8	2,1	N/A	3,8
Wallonia
PS		N/A	N/A	N/A	33,4	N/A	31,4	N/A
MR		N/A	N/A	N/A	24,5	N/A	26,5	N/A
CDH		N/A	N/A	N/A	19	N/A	19,2	N/A
Ecolo		N/A	N/A	N/A	9,6	N/A	9,7	N/A
FN		N/A	N/A	N/A	8,2	N/A	8,1	N/A
Brussels
MR		N/A	N/A	N/A	27,9	N/A	27,4	N/A
PS		N/A	N/A	N/A	25,9	N/A	25	N/A
CDH		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	15,3	N/A
ECOLO		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	10,5	N/A

Results

Chamber of Representatives

e • d Summary of the 10 June 2007 Belgian Chamber of Representatives election results
Party		Main ideology	Leader(s)	Votes	%	+/–	E.c. %	Seats	+/–
← 2003 • 2007 • 2010 →
	Christian Democratic & Flemish (CD&V) + New Flemish Alliance (N-VA)	Christian democracy	Johan Vandeurzen	1,234,950	18.51	* 2.20	29.6	30	* 8
	Reformist Movement (MR)	Liberalism	Didier Reynders	835,073	12.52	1.12	31.2	23	1
	Flemish Interest (VB)	Nationalism	Frank Vanhecke	799,844	11.99	0.40	19	17	1
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (OPEN VLD)	Liberalism	Bart Somers	789,455	11.83	3.53	18.8	18	7
	Socialist Party (PS)	Social democracy	Elio Di Rupo	724,787	10.86	2.16	29.5	20	5
	Socialist Party – Differently (SP.A) + Spirit (SPIRIT)	Social democracy	Johan Vande Lanotte	684,390	10.26	4.65	16.3	14	9
	Humanist Democratic Centre (CDH)	Christian democracy	Joëlle Milquet	404,077	6.06	0.59	15.8	10	2
	Ecolo	Green politics		340,378	5.10	2.04	12.8	8	4
	List Dedecker (LDD)	Libertarianism	Jean-Marie Dedecker	268,648	4.03	4.03	6.5	5	5
	Green! (GROEN!)	Green politics	Vera Dua	265,828	3.98	1.51	6.3	4	4
	National Front (FN)	Nationalism	Patrick Cocriamont	131,385	1.97	0.01	5.6	1	0
	Others (parties that received less than 1% of the national vote)			192,555	2.89	—	—	0	—
Valid votes				6,671,360	94.87
Blank and invalid votes				360,717	5.13
Totals				7,032,077	100.00	—	—	150	—
Electorate and voter turnout				7,720,796	91.08
Source: Federal Portal − Chamber Elections 2007. Notes: E.c. = electoral college (Dutch- and French-speaking) / * The 2003 data are resp. CD&V and N-VA instead of CD&V/N-VA alliance.

The newly constituted Chamber met for the first time on Thursday 28 June 2007, when the Representatives took the oath of office.

Details

Results by party (seats by constituency)

Region		Seats won per party						Total seats
	Constituency	CD&V + N-VA	OPEN VLD	VB	SP.A + SPIRIT	LDD	GROEN!	Total seats
Flanders	Antwerp	8 / 24	4 / 24	6 / 24	4 / 24	1 / 24	1 / 24	24 / 88
	Brussels-H.-V.	3 / 9	2 / 9	2 / 9	1 / 9	N/A	1 / 9	9 / 88
	East Flanders	6 / 20	5 / 20	4 / 20	3 / 20	1 / 20	1 / 20	20 / 88
	Leuven	2 / 7	2 / 7	1 / 7	1 / 7	1 / 7	N/A	7 / 88
	Limburg	5 / 12	2 / 12	2 / 12	3 / 12	N/A	N/A	12 / 88
	West Flanders	6 / 16	3 / 16	2 / 16	2 / 16	2 / 16	1 / 16	16 / 88
Total		30 / 88	18 / 88	17 / 88	14 / 88	5 / 88	4 / 88	88 / 88
		MR	PS	CDH	ECOLO	FN
Wallonia	Brussels-H.-V.	6 / 13	3 / 13	2 / 13	2 / 13	N/A		13 / 62
	Hainaut	6 / 19	7 / 19	3 / 19	2 / 19	1 / 19		19 / 62
	Liège	5 / 15	6 / 15	2 / 15	2 / 15	N/A		15 / 62
	Luxembourg	2 / 4	1 / 4	1 / 4	N/A	N/A		4 / 62
	Namur	2 / 6	2 / 6	1 / 6	1 / 6	N/A		6 / 62
	Walloon Brabant	2 / 5	1 / 5	1 / 5	1 / 5	N/A		5 / 62
Total		23 / 62	20 / 62	10 / 62	8 / 62	1 / 62		62 / 62

Senate

e • d Summary of the 10 June 2007 Belgian Senate election results
Parties		Senate
Parties		Votes	+/−	%	+/−	Seats	+/−
	Christian Democratic and Flemish / New-Flemish Alliance (Christen-Democratisch & Vlaams / Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie)	1,287,389	254,267	19.42%	3.65%	9	3
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats)	821,980	185,888	12.40%	2.98%	5	2
	Reformist Movement (Mouvement Réformateur)	815,755	19,998	12.31%	0.16%	6	1
	Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang)	787,782	45,842	11.89%	0.57%	5	0
	Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste)	678,812	162,096	10.24%	2.60%	4	2
	Socialist Party – Different – Spirit (Socialistische Partij – Anders – Spirit)	665,342	348,218	10.04%	5.43%	4	3
	Humanist Democratic Centre (Centre Démocrate Humaniste)	390,852	28,147	5.90%	0.36%	2	0
	Ecolo	385,466	176,598	5.82%	2.63%	2	1
	Groen!	241,151	80,127	3.64%	1.18%	1	1
	List Dedecker (Lijst Dedecker)	223,992	223,992	3.38%	3.38%	1	1
	National Front (Front National)	150,461	3,156	2.27%	0.02%	1	0
	Others	179,145	—	2.69%	—	—	—
Total (turnout 91.1%)		6,628,127		100.00%		40
Source: Verkiezingen 2007.

The 2003 data are resp. CD&V and N-VA instead of CD&V NVA alliance, Vlaams Blok instead of Vlaams Belang and Agalev instead of Groen!.

21 Community Senators and 10 Coopted Senators were also be appointed. The definite distribution is not known. On Thursday 28 June 2007, the directly-elected Senators took the oath of office. One week later, on 5 July 2007, the Community Senators took the oath, and two weeks later, on 12 July 2007, the Coopted Senators took the oath. On that day, the Senate was fully constituted.^[15]^[16]

Government formation

Due to differences in view with regards to constitutional reform between the Flemish and Francophone parties, the negotiations to form a new government proceeded with much difficulty.

On 13 June 2007, King Albert II appointed MR leader Didier Reynders informateur ,^[17]^[18] (someone who assesses the possibilities for government coalitions). Prior to his appointment, in his position as party leader, Reynders had indicated his preference for a coalition of Christian Democratic parties CD&V (Flanders) and cdH (Wallonia) and liberal parties MR (Wallonia) and Open VLD (Flanders).^[19] Reynders presented his final report to the King on 4 July 2007. Following the report, King Albert II appointed former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene as mediator to prepare the ground for the formateur and to look into the possibility of a state reform.^[20]

The King then appointed Yves Leterme of the CD&V as formateur (giving him the task of forming a coalition). Negotiations were temporarily halted on 17 August to give the King the possibility to mediate. Upon the further failure of the negotiations, on 23 August Leterme resigned as formateur.^[21] As no acceptable mediator could be found, on 27 August, the King took the unusual step to consult 13 Ministers of State to find way out of the political crisis. At the end of August, the King appointed Herman Van Rompuy (also CD&V and President of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives since July) as explorateur (scout). Following Rompuy's report, Leterme was again appointed formateur on 15 September. After two months of further negotiations, Leterme was still unable to form a coalition and resigned as formateur for a second time on 1 December.^[22]

References

↑ "Belgian PM concedes defeat". CNN.com. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-06-15.^{[ dead link ]}
↑ "Belgian premier to hand in resignation". CNN.com. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-06-15.^{[ dead link ]}
↑ "King accepts PM's resignation". Vrtnieuws.net. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
↑ "Socialists opt for opposition". Vrtnieuws.net. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
↑ "Vera Dua: "This is a new start"". Vrtnieuws.net. 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
↑ Mehmet Koksal, Ergün Top : "En cas de guerre, je me battrai contre la Belgique si nécessaire", Humeur allochtone, 3 June 2007
↑ Mehmet Koksal, Futur soldat turc Ergün Top fera "face à la Belgique" en cas de guerre, Humeur allochtone, 6 June 2007
↑ "Vande Lanotte won't use "genocide"". 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
↑ "Leterme erkent Armeense genocide". De Standaard (in Dutch). 2007-06-06. Archived from the original on 9 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
↑ "Voorstel van resolutie betreffende de genocide in 1915 van de in Turkije levende Armeniërs" (in Dutch). Belgian Senate.
↑ "Proposition de résolution relative au génocide des Arméniens de Turquie en 1915" (in French). Belgian Senate.
↑ Auteur: Van onze redactrice Isabel Albers (2006-11-25). "De Standaard Online - Kiezer duwt Leterme naar Wetstraat 16". Standaard.be. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
↑ Auteur: Van onze redacteur (2009-04-30). "De Standaard Online - Open VLD raakt niet uit moeras". Standaard.be. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-05-23. Retrieved 2007-05-21.
↑ "Convocation of the Senate" (in Dutch). Belgian Senate . Retrieved 2007-06-11.
↑ "Convocation of the Senate" (in French). Belgian Senate. Archived from the original on 16 July 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-11.
↑ "King picks Mr Reynders as "informateur"". Vrtnieuws.net. 2007-06-13. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
↑ "King appoints coalition adviser". CNN.com. 2007-06-13. Retrieved 2007-06-15.^{[ dead link ]}
↑ "Eind juni klaar met informatieopdracht" (in Dutch). VRT Nieuws. 2007-06-13. Retrieved 2007-06-13.
↑ "The Belgian plumber is back". Vrtnieuws.net. 2007-07-05. Retrieved 2007-07-06.
↑ "Leterme stapt op" (in Dutch). Knack.be. 2007-08-23. Archived from the original on 26 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
↑ "Belgium coalition talks collapse". BBC. 2007-12-01. Archived from the original on 2 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-01.

External links

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[1] "Belgian PM concedes defeat". CNN.com. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-06-15.^{[ dead link ]}

[2] "Belgian premier to hand in resignation". CNN.com. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-06-15.^{[ dead link ]}

[3] "King accepts PM's resignation". Vrtnieuws.net. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-06-15.

[4] "Socialists opt for opposition". Vrtnieuws.net. 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-06-15.

[5] "Vera Dua: "This is a new start"". Vrtnieuws.net. 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2007-06-15.

[6] Mehmet Koksal, Ergün Top : "En cas de guerre, je me battrai contre la Belgique si nécessaire", Humeur allochtone, 3 June 2007

[7] Mehmet Koksal, Futur soldat turc Ergün Top fera "face à la Belgique" en cas de guerre, Humeur allochtone, 6 June 2007

[8] "Vande Lanotte won't use "genocide"". 2007-06-07. Retrieved 2007-06-07.

[9] "Leterme erkent Armeense genocide". De Standaard (in Dutch). 2007-06-06. Archived from the original on 9 June 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-07.

[10] "Voorstel van resolutie betreffende de genocide in 1915 van de in Turkije levende Armeniërs" (in Dutch). Belgian Senate.

[11] "Proposition de résolution relative au génocide des Arméniens de Turquie en 1915" (in French). Belgian Senate.

[12] Auteur: Van onze redactrice Isabel Albers (2006-11-25). "De Standaard Online - Kiezer duwt Leterme naar Wetstraat 16". Standaard.be. Retrieved 2010-06-19.

[13] Auteur: Van onze redacteur (2009-04-30). "De Standaard Online - Open VLD raakt niet uit moeras". Standaard.be. Retrieved 2010-06-19.

[14] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-05-23. Retrieved 2007-05-21.

[15] "Convocation of the Senate" (in Dutch). Belgian Senate . Retrieved 2007-06-11.

[16] "Convocation of the Senate" (in French). Belgian Senate. Archived from the original on 16 July 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-11.

[17] "King picks Mr Reynders as "informateur"". Vrtnieuws.net. 2007-06-13. Retrieved 2007-06-15.

[18] "King appoints coalition adviser". CNN.com. 2007-06-13. Retrieved 2007-06-15.^{[ dead link ]}

[19] "Eind juni klaar met informatieopdracht" (in Dutch). VRT Nieuws. 2007-06-13. Retrieved 2007-06-13.

[20] "The Belgian plumber is back". Vrtnieuws.net. 2007-07-05. Retrieved 2007-07-06.

[21] "Leterme stapt op" (in Dutch). Knack.be. 2007-08-23. Archived from the original on 26 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-23.

[22] "Belgium coalition talks collapse". BBC. 2007-12-01. Archived from the original on 2 December 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-01.

v t e Elections and referendums in Belgium (list)
General/federal elections	1830 1831 1833 1835 1837 1839 1841 1843 1845 1847 1848 1850 1851 1852 1854 1855 1856 1857 1859 1861 1863 1864 1866 1867 1868 1870 (Jun) 1870 (Aug) 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1919 1921 1925 1929 1932 1936 1939 1946 1949 1950 1954 1958 1961 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1978 1981 1985 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2010 2014 2019
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Referendums	1950