From the creation of the Belgian state in 1830 and throughout most of the 19th century, two political parties dominated Belgian politics: the Catholic Party (Church-oriented and conservative) and the Liberal Party (anti-clerical and progressive). In the late 19th century, the Labour Party arose to represent the emerging industrial working class. These three groups still dominate Belgian politics, but they have evolved substantially in character.
Party status and financing
In Belgium, the status of political parties is not defined or regulated by the constitution or by laws. A party does not even need to be a formal organisation or be registered; they can exist de facto. Anyone can simply stand for elections by presenting an electoral list, provided the candidates are eligible and the list is supported by incumbent members of that body or by a certain number of voters.
Nevertheless, some aspects have been strictly regulated in the last decades. Private funding of political parties is very restricted; political parties are publicly funded based on the number of votes they received in the elections as well as for parliamentary groups (in total c. €70 million per year). Campaign expenses are regulated during a certain period preceding an election (sperperiode).
The law of 4 July 1989 on electoral expenses (for Chamber elections) and party financing uses the following definition of a political party:
The association of natural persons, either with or without legal personality, that participates in elections defined by the Constitution and by law, that, in accordance with article 117 of the Electoral Code, presents candidates for the office of representative in each electoral district of a Community or Region and that, within the limits of the Constitution, of the law, the decree and the ordinance, aims to influence the expression of the popular will in the way described in its articles or its programme.
One non-profit association (vzw/asbl) must be designated in order to receive public funding and provide accounting to an audit committee. Usually the main political parties have multiple such vzws/asbls that exist to facilitate their party structure. For example, when Vlaams Blok was taken to court for racism in 2004, the court in fact convicted three vzws, after which a successor party Vlaams Belang was founded.
Equivalent laws exist for the electoral expenses in the European Parliament elections, the regional elections and local elections.
Main ideologies or categories
The evolution of Belgian political parties through time and political ideology.
In 1968, the Christian Democratic Party, responding to linguistic tensions in the country, divided into two independent parties: the Parti Social Chrétien (PSC) in French-speaking Belgium and the Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP) in Flanders. The two parties pursue the same basic policies but maintain separate organisations. The CVP is the larger of the two, getting more than twice as many votes as the PSC. The chairman of the Flemish Catholic party is now Sammy Mahdi. Maxime Prévot is president of the Francophone Catholic party. Following the 1999 general elections, the CVP and PSC were ousted from office, bringing an end to a 40-year term on the government benches. In 2001, the CVP changed its name to Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V). In 1971 the German wing of the PSC became independent to get the name Christlich Soziale Partei. In 2002, the PSC changed its name to Centre démocrate humaniste (cdH), and in 2022 again to Les Engagés ('The Committed Ones') abandoning their christian democratic roots.[1]
After the big losses in the 1999 general elections, when both CVP and PSC were banished to the opposition benches, some party members decided to leave the mother parties in order to form a new liberal-conservative party. In Flanders, the New Christian Democrats (NCD) was founded by Johan Van Hecke and Karel Pinxten. In Wallonia, the Citizens' Movement for Change (MCC) was founded by Gérard Deprez. Both parties soon joined the major liberal parties, respectively the VLD in Flanders and the MR in Wallonia.
Socialists/Social Democrats
The modern Belgian Socialist parties are the descendants of the Belgian Labour Party. They have lost much of their early Marxist trends. They are now primarily labour-based parties similar to the German Social Democratic Party and the French Socialist Party. The Socialists have been part of several postwar governments and have produced some of the country's most distinguished statesmen. The Socialists also split along linguistic lines in 1978. Conner Rousseau is the current head of the Flemish Socialist Party and Paul Magnette is the current president of the Francophone Socialists. In general, the Walloon Socialists tend to concentrate on domestic issues. In the 1980s, the Flemish Socialists focused heavily on international issues, and on security in Europe in particular, where they frequently opposed U.S. policies. However, first with Willy Claes, then Frank Vandenbroucke and with Erik Derycke as Foreign Minister, all three Flemish Socialists, the party made a significant shift to the centre adopting less controversial stances on foreign policy issues.
The Francophone Parti Socialiste (PS) is mainly based in the industrial cities of Wallonia (Liège, Charleroi, and Mons). The Flemish Socialists' support is less regionally concentrated. PS is known in East Belgium as Sozialistische Partei (SP). The Flemish Socialists changed their party's name to Socialistische Partij Anders (SP.a) in 2002 and to Vooruit in 2021.
Recently, because of grassroots allegations about the party's "too little Socialist stand" in many political issues, a radical party wing broke away from the motherparty and formed, with support from smaller leftist parties, the Committee for Another Policy (CAP). Within the SP.a, the more Marxist SP.a-Rood, is trying to change the course of the party.
The Liberal Parties chiefly appeal to businesspeople, property owners, shopkeepers, and the self-employed, in general. In the terms generally used in English-speaking countries, Belgian liberals would be called "moderate conservatives", "fiscal conservatives" and "social liberals".
There are two Liberal parties, formed along linguistic lines: The Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (Open VLD) who opened up their ranks to Volksunie and CD&V defectors some years ago, managed to break the dominance of CD&V over Belgian politics in 1999. Open VLD is currently headed by Egbert Lachaert.[2] The Mouvement Réformateur (MR) is the equivalent party on the Francophone side, and is headed by Georges-Louis Bouchez. The MR is a federation mainly composed of the former PRL,[3] it is also composed of the Germanophone Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt (PFF),[3] and is eventually also composed of the Christian-democratic split-off called MCC. It used to be composed of the Brussels-based FDF until September 2012,[3] which is now an independent party.[4]
Recently, the Flemish liberal party faced several high-ranking elected officials breaking away in order to found new "right-liberal" parties: MEP Ward Beysen (Liberaal Appèl, LA), senator Leo Govaerts (Veilig Blauw), senator Hugo Coveliers (VLOTT), chief of the High Supervisory Committee Willy Vermeulen (Verstandig Rechts), VLD board member Boudewijn Bouckaert (Cassandra vzw) and senator Jean-Marie Dedecker (Lijst Dedecker, LDD). There has been also francophone "right-liberal" parties: senator Alain Destexhe (Listes Destexhe) and former Deputy Head of the Cabinet of Serge Kubla (first Libéral Démocrate, LiDé and later co-founded Parti populaire, PP).
Communists
The first communist party in Belgium was founded by the more radical elements of the Belgian Labour Party in 1921 and was named the Communist Party of Belgium (KPB-PCB). The party was a member of the Comintern and entered parliament in 1925. It received its highest score in the post-war elections of 1946, when it won 12.7% of the popular vote and took part in the next coalition government. With the start of the Cold War the party started its decline and after the elections of 1985 it was no longer represented in the Belgian Parliament. The party eventually disbanded itself in 1989, but two minor parties, the Kommunistische Partij (KP) in Flanders and the Parti Communiste (PC) in Wallonia, see themselves as the successors.
A specific phenomenon in Belgium was the emergence of one-issue parties whose only reason for existence was the defence of the cultural, political, and economic interests of one of the linguistic groups or regions of Belgian society. See Flemish movement.
The most militant Flemish regional party in Parliament in the 1950s and 1960s, the Volksunie (VU), once drew nearly one-quarter of Belgium's Dutch-speaking electorate away from the traditional parties. The Volksunie was in the forefront of a successful campaign by the country's Flemish population for cultural and political parity with the nation's long dominant French-speaking population. However, in the nineties, the party has suffered severe setbacks. In October 2001, the party disintegrated. The left-liberal wing founded Spirit, later called the Social Liberal Party, while the more traditional Flemish nationalist wing continued under the banner Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA). After a disappointing result in the regional elections of 2009, the Social Liberal Party decided to merge with the Flemish ecologists of Groen!. The N-VA, on the other hand, formed an electoral alliance with Christian-democratic CD&V from 2004 to 2008. After this period, the party's popularity grew significantly and it became the largest Flemish party. N-VA won the 2010 federal elections with 28% of the Flemish votes (17.4% of overall vote) and the 2014 Flemish parliament election with 31.9% of votes. The N-VA is led by Bart De Wever who has been mayor of Antwerp since 2013.[5] N-VA member Geert Bourgeois has been minister-president of the Flemish government from 2014 to 2019. N-VA policies are primarily focused on economic reform through extended devolution of political power within the Belgian confederation model of governance, and do eventually propose full secession from the Belgian confederation.
Democratic, Federalist, Independent (DéFI) is a Brussels French-speaking Belgian political party that aims to defend and expand linguistic rights of French-speaking people in and around Brussels. It has been affiliated with the Mouvement Réformateur, a liberal alliance party, under the name FDF.
The Union des Francophones (UF) is an electoral list combining the major Belgian Francophone parties for the regional elections in Flanders.
The Flemish (Agalev) and Francophone (Ecolo) ecologist parties made their parliamentary breakthrough in 1981. They focus heavily on environmental issues and are the most consistent critics of U.S. policy. Following significant gains made in the 1999 general elections, the two green parties joined a federal coalition cabinet for the first time in their history, but were ousted after the next elections. Agalev subsequently changed its name to Groen! in 2003. In 2012, the party dropped its trademark exclamation point and went on as Groen.
Nationalists
The foremost Flemish party in Belgium is the Vlaams Belang, which was founded in 2004, after its predecessor was condemned by a High Court for "permanent incitation to discrimination and racism." On the far right, the Flanders separatist party Vlaams Blok steadily rose in the 1980s and 1990s. The other parties except the fortuynist party VLOTT maintain a cordon sanitaire on the Vlaams Belang as they did the Vlaams Blok.[6][7] Although other parties in Belgium are supportive of Flemish and Dutch cultural issues, the Vlaams Belang is most strident in pursuing a secessionist agenda, for Flemish independence.
In Wallonia, the Front National (FN) was the largest anti-immigrant Wallonian party. Officially, it was a bilingual party, but in reality, it was a purely French-speaking group, although it did support Belgian federalism.
Alliances
After the installation of a 5% electoral threshold, with private funding close to forbidden and public funding only for parties with at least one representative in parliament, some of the smaller parties have made alliances with a larger, more traditional party, especially in the Flemish Region. Parties in any alliance remain independent, but they would field candidates on one combined list at elections. In general, the smaller party/parties would be assured of gaining seats, and the larger party would be assured of obtaining a larger overall share of the vote. This was especially true for the CD&V/N-VA alliance, whereby CD&V became the largest party by votes in the Flemish regional elections, so therefore it could initiate coalition talks and the party could appoint the leader of the Flemish regional government. The VLD/Vivant alliance did not perform well in the polls. The proposed SP.a/Spirit/Groen! alliance did not happen, instead the SP.a/Spirit alliance went to the polls, although the tripartite cartel became reality in some constituencies on the local level in the October 2006 municipal elections.
The politics of Belgium take place in the framework of a federal, representative democratic, constitutional monarchy. The King of the Belgians is the head of state, and the prime minister of Belgium is the head of government, in a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives. The federation is made up of (language-based) communities and (territorial) regions. Philippe is the seventh and current King of the Belgians, having ascended the throne on 21 July 2013.
Flemish Brabant is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also surrounds the Brussels-Capital Region. Its capital is Leuven. It has an area of 2,118 km2 (818 sq mi) which is divided into two administrative districts containing 65 municipalities. As of January 2019, Flemish Brabant had a population of 1,146,175.
The Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats is a Flemish conservative liberal political party in Belgium. A smaller fraction within the party has social liberal views.
The Flemish Movement is an umbrella term which encompasses various political groups in the Belgian region of Flanders and, less commonly, in French Flanders. Ideologically, it encompasses groups which have sought to promote Flemish culture and the Dutch language as well as those seeking greater political autonomy for Flanders within Belgium. It also encompassed nationalists who seek the secession of Flanders from Belgium, either through outright independence or unification with the Netherlands.
Regional elections were held in Belgium, to choose representatives in the regional councils of Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels and the German-speaking Community on 13 June 1999. The regional elections were held on the same day as the European elections and the federal elections.
Flanders is both a cultural community and an economic region within the Belgian state, and has significant autonomy.
This article gives an overview of liberalism in Belgium. Liberalism was a dominant force since the Belgian independence from the Netherlands. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it is not necessary that parties labeled themselves as a liberal party.
Vlaams Belang is a Flemish nationalist and right-wing populist political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels Capital Region of Belgium. It is widely considered to be on the political far-right, although it self-describes as centre-right.
Flemish political parties operate in the whole Flemish Community, which covers the unilingual Flemish Region and the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region. In the latter, they compete with French-speaking parties that all also operate in Wallonia. There are very few parties that operate on a national level in Belgium. Flanders generally tends to vote for right-wing, conservative parties, whereas in French-speaking Belgium the socialist party is usually the most successful one.
The Belgian provincial, municipal and district elections of 2006 took place on Sunday 8 October 2006. The electors have elected the municipal councillors of 589 cities and towns as well as the ten provincial councils. The voters in the town of Antwerp have also been able to vote for the city's district councils. In seven Flemish municipalities with a special language statute and in the Walloon municipality of Comines-Warneton the aldermen and the members of the OCMW/CPAS council have also been directly elected.
Federal elections were held in Belgium on 10 June 2007. Voters went to the polls in order to elect new members for the Chamber of Representatives and Senate.
The partition of Belgium is a hypothetical situation, which has been discussed by both Belgian and international media, envisioning a split of Belgium along linguistic divisions, with the Flemish Community (Flanders) and the French-speaking Community (Wallonia) becoming independent states. Alternatively, it is hypothesized that Flanders could join the Netherlands and Wallonia could join France.
Federal elections were held in Belgium on 13 June 2010, during the midst of the 2007-11 Belgian political crisis. After the fall of the previous Leterme II Government over the withdrawal of Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats from the government the King dissolved the legislature and called new elections. The New Flemish Alliance, led by Bart De Wever, emerged as the plurality party with 27 seats, just one more than the francophone Socialist Party, led by Elio Di Rupo, which was the largest party in the Wallonia region and Brussels. It took a world record 541 days until a government was formed, resulting in a government led by Di Rupo.
The Belgian provincial, municipal and district elections of 2012 took place on 14 October. As with the previous 2006 elections, these are no longer organised by the Belgian federal state but instead by the respective regions:
Federal elections were held in Belgium on 25 May 2014. All 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected, whereas the Senate was no longer directly elected following the 2011–2012 state reform. These were the first elections held under King Philippe's reign.
Regional elections were held in Belgium on 25 May 2014 to choose representatives for the Flemish Parliament, Walloon Parliament, Brussels Parliament and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community. These elections were held on the same day as the 2014 European elections as well as the 2014 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.
The Belgian provincial, municipal and district elections of 2018 took place on Sunday 14 October 2018. They are organised by the respective regions:
The 2019 Belgian regional elections took place on Sunday 26 May, the same day as the 2019 European Parliament election as well as the Belgian federal election.
In the run up to the 2024 Belgian federal election, various organisations carry out opinion polling to gauge voting intention in Belgium. The date range for these polls are from the 2019 Belgian federal election, held on 25 May, to the present day. The results of nationwide polls are usually numerically split into the three Belgian regions: Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia. Federal seat projections for the Chamber of Representatives are presented together under these regional polls. The federal election will be part of a group of elections which also include the regional elections and the European elections. Some polls might be undefined voting intentions without differentiating between the elections.
↑ "Elections 07 — Vlaams Belang". VRT flandersnews.be. 2007-05-03. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-05-20. This meant the introduction of a 'cordon sanitaire' around the party excluding it from government at all levels. The cordon remains in place until today.
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