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| This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Belgium |
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General elections were held in Belgium on 1 June 1958. [1] The result was a victory for the Christian Social Party, which won 104 of the 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 53 of the 106 seats in the Senate. [2] Voter turnout was 93.6% in the Chamber election and 93.7% in the Senate election. [3] Elections for the nine provincial councils were also held.
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.
The Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) was a Christian democratic political party in Belgium, which existed from 1945 until 1968 when it split along linguistic lines.
The country of Belgium is divided into three regions. Two of these regions, the Flemish Region or Flanders, and Walloon Region, or Wallonia, are each subdivided into five provinces. The third region, the Brussels-Capital Region, is not divided into provinces, as it was originally only a small part of a province itself.
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The election took place in a political crisis known as the Second School War. The outgoing anti-clerical "purple" government of the Socialist and Liberal Party, led by Achille Van Acker, reversed policies of the previous Catholic-led government regarding private schools. The Van Acker government lost the election, leading to again a Catholic government led by Gaston Eyskens. That government, which was a few seats short of a majority in the Chamber, would be the last single-party government in Belgian history. Later in 1958, the School War was ended by a cross-party agreement and the Liberal Party joined the government.
The Second School War was a political crisis in Belgium over the issue of the religion in education. The War lasted between 1950 and 1959 and was ended by a cross-party agreement, known as the School Pact, which clarified the role of religion in the state. It followed a crisis over the same issue in the 19th century, known as the First School War.
Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to remove the church from all aspects of public and political life, and its involvement in the everyday life of the citizen.
Achille Van Acker was a Belgian politician who served three terms as Prime Minister of Belgium between 1946 and 1958. A moderate from Flanders, Van Acker was a member of the Belgian Socialist Party (PSB–BSP) and played an important role in the creation of the Belgian welfare state after World War II.
