Belgian federal election, 2014

Belgian federal election, 2014

25 May 2014

All 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives 76 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party Third party   Leader Bart De Wever Elio Di Rupo Charles Michel Party N-VA PS MR Leader since 2004 1999 2011 Leader's seat Antwerp Hainaut Walloon Brabant Last election 27 seats, 17.4% 26 seats, 13.7% 18 seats, 9.3% Seats won 33 23 20 Seat change 6 3 2 Popular vote 1,366,414 787,165 650,290 Percentage 20.36% 11.67% 9.64% Swing 2.86 2.03 0.36   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Wouter Beke Gwendolyn Rutten Bruno Tobback Party CD&V Open VLD sp.a Leader since 2010 2012 2011 Leader's seat Limburg Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant Last election 17 seats, 10.8% 13 seats, 8.6% 13 seats, 9.2% Seats won 18 14 13 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 783,060 659,582 595,486 Percentage 10.85% 9.78% 8.83% Swing 0.76 1.14 0.41

Colours denote the party receiving a plurality of votes per electoral canton

Federal Government before election Di Rupo Government Elected Federal Government Michel Government

Federal elections were held in Belgium on 25 May 2014.^[1] 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.

Date

As part of the state reform adopted 19 December 2013,^[2] the date of election will from now on coincide with the European elections,^[3] which the Council of the EU has scheduled for 22–25 May 2014.^[4] The regional elections in Belgium already legally coincide with the European elections, consequently Belgians will vote for three elections on the same day.

Background and reforms since last election

The previous 2010 election resulted in a victory for Flemish nationalist N-VA. The coalition formation stalemate went on for a record-breaking 541 days. Eventually, the negotiating parties agreed upon a sixth Belgian state reform and the Di Rupo Government was finally formed on 6 December 2011 and comprised PS, MR, CD&V, Open VLD, sp.a and cdH.

The state reform has the following consequences for the election in 2014:

• The controversial electoral constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde no longer exists; rather, each province plus the federal capital now has its own constituency, and voter discrimination has been abolished.
• The Senate will no longer be directly elected.
• The term length will be increased from 4 years to 5 years, and the election will always coincide with the European Parliament election.^[3]

Election campaign

The campaign topics largely focused on socio-economic reforms: job creation and unemployment, tax reform, pensions, ... This campaign also featured an unprecedented level of quantified programmes by political parties. For example, the N-VA released its "V plan" and CD&V its "3D plan".

One week before the election day, former CD&V Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene suddenly died while in France. Several debates were cancelled, and CD&V as well as all other Flemish parties suspended their campaign for a few days.^[5]

Jewish Museum shooting

On 24 May, the day before the elections, a shooting occurred at the Belgian Jewish Museum in Brussels, with three people reported dead.^[6] Self-described anti-Zionist MP Laurent Louis suggested that the attack could be a false flag operation seeking to discredit him and his political party (Debout les Belges, or "Stand Up, Belgians") on the eve of the elections.^[7]

Political parties

The primary six Flemish political parties and their results for the House of Representatives (Kamer). From 1978 to 2014, in percentages for the complete 'Kingdom'.

Current situation

In 2010, ten parties won seats in the Belgian Senate: Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V), Centre Démocrate Humaniste (cdH), Socialistische Partij Anders (sp.a), Parti Socialiste (PS), Open Vld, Mouvement Réformateur (MR), Groen, Ecolo, New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and Vlaams Belang. In the Chamber of Representatives, the People's Party (PP) and Libertarian, Direct, Democratic (LDD) each also won one seat.

During the legislation, the Francophone Democratic Federalists (FDF) separated from the MR party and are now represented in the Chamber with 3 representatives, but have no Senators. The PP Member of Parliament left the party and became an independent. One Vlaams Belang member of the Chamber and one Vlaams Belang member of the Senate left their party and decided to become independents.

Thus, currently the ten major parties are represented in both the Chamber and the Senate; in addition, LDD and FDF are represented in the Chamber of Representatives.

However, most of the major parties only operate in the Dutch-speaking or in the French-speaking constituencies. Voters who live in the provinces of Antwerp, East Flanders, Flemish Brabant, Limburg or West Flanders can only vote for CD&V, Groen, N-VA, Open VLD, sp.a and Vlaams Belang, apart from the minor parties – except when a French-speaking party would present a list in one of these provinces, which has not happened except for a FDF and a PP list in Flemish Brabant. In the provinces of Hainaut, Liège, Luxembourg, Namur and Walloon Brabant, voters can only vote for cdH, Ecolo, MR and PS, apart from the minor parties – except when a Dutch-speaking party would present a list in one of these provinces, which has not happened in this elections.

In the constituency of Liège, the German-speaking parties CSP, Ecolo, PFF and SP all form one list with their French-speaking counterparts; the name of these lists only mention the French-speaking party. Therefore, the CSP politicians are on the cdH list, the Ecolo ones on the Ecolo list, PFF on the MR list and SP on the PS list. The other German-speaking parties (ProDG and Vivant) do not present a list due to their marginal chance of getting a seat in Parliament.

In the constituency of Brussels-Capital, Ecolo and Groen formed one list under the name Ecolo.^[8] CD&V, N-VA, Open Vld, sp.a and Vlaams Belang will each present a single list.

LDD only presented a list in West Flanders. FDF presented a list in all Walloon constituencies, in Brussels-Capital and in Flemish Brabant. PVDA-PTB presented a list in all eleven constituencies of Belgium, making it one of the few parties which are represented in the whole of Belgium.

Main 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
Major parties
	CD&V	Servais Verherstraeten	Pieter De Crem	Koen Geens	Wouter Beke	Hendrik Bogaert	Benjamin Dalle
	Groen	Meyrem Almaci	Stefaan Van Hecke	Anne Dedry	Katrijn Conjaerts	Wouter De Vriendt	Annalisa Gadaleta (3rd on ECOLO list)
	N-VA	Bart De Wever	Siegfried Bracke	Theo Francken	Steven Vandeput	Brecht Vermeulen	Luc Demullier
	Open Vld	Annemie Turtelboom	Alexander De Croo	Maggie De Block	Patrick Dewael	Vincent Van Quickenborne	Thomas Ryckalts
	sp.a	Monica De Coninck	Karin Temmerman	Hans Bonte	Peter Van Velthoven	Johan Vande Lanotte	Maité Morren
	Vlaams Belang	Filip Dewinter	Barbara Pas	Philip Claeys	Bert Schoofs	Peter Logghe	Hilde Roossens
Minor parties
	LDD	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Jean-Marie Dedecker	N/A
	PVDA+	Peter Mertens	Tom De Meester	Sander Vandecapelle	Kim De Witte	Filip Desmet	Benjamin Pestieau
	BUB	Vincent Massaut	Bic Verbiest	Marie-Luce Lovinfosse	Tonnie Brichard	Peter Coussens	Hans Van de Cauter
	Pirate Party	Christophe Cop	Jonas De Koning	N/A	Jo Vols	N/A	N/A

French-speaking constituencies

Party		Hainaut	Liège	Luxembourg	Namur	Walloon Brabant	Brussels
Major parties
	cdH	Catherine Fonck	Melchior Wathelet	Benoît Lutgen	Benoît Dispa	Cédric du Monceau	Francis Delpérée
	Ecolo	Jean-Marc Nollet	Muriel Gerkens	Cécile Thibaut	Georges Gilkinet	Marcel Cheron	Zakia Khattabi
	FDF	Christophe Verbist	Hugues Lannoy	Serge Saintes	Monique Felix	Amaury Alexandre	Olivier Maingain
	MR	Olivier Chastel	Daniel Bacquelaine	Dominique Tilmans	Sabine Laruelle	Charles Michel	Didier Reynders
	PS	Elio Di Rupo	Willy Demeyer	Philippe Courard	Jean-Marc Delizée	André Flahaut	Laurette Onkelinx
Minor parties
	PTB	Marco Van Hees	Raoul Hedebouw	Jonathan Taffarel	Thierry Warmoes	Liza Lebrun	Benjamin Pestieau
	PP	Mischaël Modrikamen	Aldo Carcaci	Michel Renquin	Nathalie Strubbe	Michaël Debast	Tatiana Hachimi
	BUB	Romuald Joly	Nicolas Jacquemin	Jo Conter	Adrien Mertens	Dimitri Parée	Hans van de Cauter
	Pirate Party	Paul Bossu	Paul Thunissen	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Opinion polling

The results of the opinion polls are usually split into separate numbers for the three Belgian regions. Below, they are transposed to national figures.

Date(s) conducted	Newspaper	N-VA	PS	CD&V	MR	sp.a	Open Vld	VB	CDH	Ecolo	Groen	Others	Lead
15 April 2014	La Libre Belgique	20.6%	10.2%	10.7%	8.4%	8.5%	8.7%	6.4%	3.7%	3.9%	4.9%	14.0%	9.9% over CD&V
11 October 2013	De Standaard	17.6%	–	12.0%	–	8.4%	8.7%	6.7%	–	–	6.3%	40.4%	5.6% over CD&V
6 September 2013	La Libre Belgique[9]	22.3%	10.8%	10.9%	8.8%	7.6%	7.5%	7.2%	4.7%	4.7%	4.4%	11.2%	11.4% over CD&V
1 September 2013	Le Soir	19.3%	11.3%	10.8%	8.7%	8.0%	8.9%	7.5%	4.5%	4.3%	4.0%	12.5%	8.0% over PS
16 June 2013	Le Soir[10]	22.0%	10.5%	9.9%	8.3%	8.7%	8.3%	5.9%	4.6%	4.7%	4.8%	12.1%	11.5% over PS
25 May 2013	La Libre Belgique[11]	20.6%	10.2%	10.0%	8.9%	8.9%	8.1%	8.1%	4.7%	5.4%	4.1%	11.0%	10.4% over PS
25 May 2013	De Standaard[12]	20.2%	–	10.9%	–	9.3%	6.4%	6.7%	–	–	6.0%	40.5%	9.3% over CD&V
24 March 2013	Le Soir[13]	21.2%	11.8%	10.5%	8.6%	8.6%	7.8%	6.6%	5.0%	4.4%	4.9%	10.7%	9.4% over PS
16 March 2013	Het Laatste Nieuws[14]	21.0%	–	9.4%	–	8.5%	7.5%	7.0%	–	–	5.2%	41.4%	11.6% over CD&V
22 February 2013	La Libre Belgique[15]	24.3%	10.8%	8.8%	9.0%	9.3%	6.2%	4.2%	4.6%	4.7%	5.4%	12.7%	13.5% over PS
14 October 2012	Provincial election 2012[16][17]	18.0%	11.7%	13.5%	10.2%	8.6%	9.2%	5.6%	6.2%	4.8%	5.3%	6.7%	4.5% over CD&V
14 September 2012	De Standaard[18]	22.6%	–	11.5%	–	9.0%	6.7%	5.9%	–	–	4.9%	39.4%	11.1% over CD&V
10 June 2010	Federal election 2010[19]	17.4%	13.7%	10.8%	9.3%	9.2%	8.6%	7.8%	5.5%	4.8%	4.4%	8.4%	3.7% over PS

Results

At the Flemish side, Vlaams Belang and LDD suffered major losses; their votes went to N-VA, which increased its position as largest party. CD&V, Open Vld and Groen gained slightly as well, while sp.a lost slightly.

At the French-speaking side, PS, cdH and Ecolo suffer losses while MR gained as well as newcomers PTB-GO! and FDF.

 Summary of the 25 May 2014 Belgian Chamber of Representatives election results

← 2010 • 2014 • 2019 →
Party		Leader(s)	Votes	%	+/–	E.c. %	Seats	+/–
	New Flemish Alliance (N-VA)	Bart De Wever	1,366,414	20.26	2.86	32.22	33 / 150	6
	Socialist Party (PS)	Elio Di Rupo	787,165	11.67	2.05	31.43	23 / 150	3
	Christian Democratic & Flemish (CD&V)	Wouter Beke	783,060	11.61	0.77	18.47	18 / 150	1
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open Vld)	Gwendolyn Rutten	659,582	9.78	1.17	15.55	14 / 150	1
	Reformist Movement (MR)	Charles Michel	650,290	9.64	0.31	25.96	20 / 150	2
	Socialist Party–Differently (sp.a)	Bruno Tobback	595,486	8.83	0.36	14.04	13 / 150	0
	Green (Groen)	Wouter Van Besien	358,947	5.32	0.94	8.46	6 / 150	1
	Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH)	Benoît Lutgen	336,281	4.99	0.59	13.43	9 / 150	0
	Workers' Party (PTB–GO!/PVDA+)	Peter Mertens PVDA+ PTB–GO!	251,289 118,246 132,685	3.72 1.76 1.97	2.17	— 3.24 5.31	2 / 150	2
	Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang)	Gerolf Annemans	247,746	3.67	4.07	5.84	3 / 150	9
	Ecolo	Olivier Deleuze & Emily Hoyos	222,551	3.30	1.50	8.89	6 / 150	2
	Francophone Democratic Federalists (FDF)	Olivier Maingain	121,403	1.80	new	4.85	2 / 150	2
	People's Party (Parti Populaire)	Mischaël Modrikamen	102,599	1.51	0.24	4.10	1 / 150	0
	Libertarian, Direct, Democratic (LDD)	Jean-Marie Dedecker	28,414	0.42	1.88	0.67	0 / 150	1
	Others (parties that received less than 1% of the overall vote)		233,805	3.47	—	—	0 / 150	0
Valid votes			6,745,059	94.24
Blank and invalid votes			412,439	5.76
Totals			7,157,498	100.00	—	—	150 / 150	0
Electorate and voter turnout			8,001,278	89.45	0.23
Source: Federal Portal − Chamber Elections 2014 Notes: 1) E.c. = electoral college (Dutch- and French-speaking)

In detail

Dutch-speaking constituencies																Bilingual constituency
Party	Antwerp			East Flanders			Flemish Brabant			Limburg			West Flanders			Brussels
	Votes	Perc.	Seats	Votes	Perc.	Seats	Votes	Perc.	Seats	Votes	Perc.	Seats	Votes	Perc.	Seats	Votes	Perc.	Seats
N-VA	449,531	39.38	11	306,309	31.03	6	192,698	28.37	5	174,030	31.39	5	230,265	28.50	6	13,240	2.65	0
CD&V	183,636	16.09	4	177,178	17.95	4	112,251	16.53	3	125,962	22.72	3	175,669	21.74	4	8,193	1.64	0
OPEN VLD	116,892	10.24	2	178,911	18.12	4	170,128	25.05	4	68,713	12.39	2	111,388	13.79	2	13,294	2.66	0
SP.A	132,096	11.57	3	131,607	13.33	3	81,254	11.96	2	98,194	17.71	2	142,406	17.63	3	9,633	1.93	0
GROEN	112,477	9.85	2	90,144	9.13	2	59,096	8.70	1	33,244	6.00	0	63,657	7.88	1	ECOLO
VL. BELANG	79,852	7.00	2	61,523	6.23	1	28,857	4.25	0	34,020	6.14	0	38,232	4.73	0	5,165	1.03	0
PTB/PVDA+	51,638	4.52	0	26,294	2.66	0	12,664	1.86	0	14,253	2.57	0	13,397	1.66	0	PTB/PVDA–GO!
Total	1,141,541	100.00	24	987,205	100.00	20	679,125	100.00	15	554,454	100.00	12	807,929	100.00	16
French-speaking constituencies																Bilingual constituency
Party	Hainaut			Liège			Luxemburg			Namur			Walloon Brabant			Brussels
	Votes	Perc.	Seats	Votes	Perc.	Seats	Votes	Perc.	Seats	Votes	Perc.	Seats	Votes	Perc.	Seats	Votes	Perc.	Seats
PS	303,085	41.04	9	187,934	30.00	5	37,373	22.02	1	83,361	27.83	2	51,359	21.41	1	124,053	24.86	5
MR	153,304	20.76	5	158,062	25.23	5	41,346	24.36	1	84,788	28.31	2	97,741	40.75	3	115,049	23.05	4
CDH	76,812	10.40	2	81,789	13.05	2	56,702	33.41	2	48,135	16.07	1	26,335	10.98	0	46,508	9.32	2
ECOLO	43,489	5.89	1	56,902	9.08	1	13,471	7.94	0	29,186	9.74	1	27,356	11.40	1	52,147	10.45	2
PTB/PVDA–GO!	38,194	5.17	1	50,609	8.08	1	4,003	2.36	0	14,559	4.86	0	6,449	2.69	0	19,142	3.84	0
FDF	14,382	1.95	0	13,917	2.22	0	2,811	1.66	0	8,367	2.79	0	11,198	4.67	0	55,323	11.08	2
PP	32,158	4.35	0	32,237	5.15	1	6,980	4.11	0	13,029	4.35	0	9,544	3.98	0	8,651	1.73	0
Total	738,496	100.00	18	601,826	100.00	15	169,719	100.00	4	299,512	100.00	6	239,869	100.00	5	499,082	100.00	15

Government formation

On 27 May, King Philippe nominated Bart De Wever (N-VA) as informateur, meaning he is tasked with finding enough points of agreement for a possible coalition.^[20]

After five months of discussions, a coalition of four parties (CD&V, Open Vld, MR and N-VA) came to agreement on 7 October with Walloon Charles Michel as prime minister. Yet it is a Flanders-focused coalition that excludes Socialists from the government for the first time in 26 years.^[21] Michel would be Belgium's youngest prime minister after the 28 hours of discussions over achieving a balanced budget by 2018. The announcement was made by party colleague and Budget Minister Olivier Chastel on Twitter: "Charles Michel becomes prime minister."^[22]

References

1. "Europa bekrachtigt 25 mei als Belgische verkiezingsdatum". HLN. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
2. Archived 6 June 2014 at the Wayback Machine
3. Proposal for a revision of the Belgian Constitution, senate.be
4. COUNCIL DECISION 2013/299/EU, Euratom of 14 June 2013 fixing the period for the eighth election of representatives to the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage, published on 21 June 2013 by the Official Journal of the European Union, L 169/69
5. "CD&V schort campagne op na overlijden van Dehaene". deredactie.be. 15 May 2014.
6. "Three die in Brussels shooting at Jewish Museum". deredactie.be. 24 May 2014.
7. Laurent Louis (24 May 2014). "Facebook post by Laurent LOUIS".
8. "Groen en Ecolo op één federale lijst in Brussel". deredactie.be. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
9. "Baromètre: La N-VA gagne 2.7% en Flandre!". Lalibre.be. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
10. "Le PS en net recul en Wallonie, la N-VA toujours loin devant en Flandre". les documents du Soir. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
11. "La N-VA perd du poids, le PS en petite forme". Retrieved 11 October 2014.
12. "N-VA krijgt een tik". De Standaard. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
13. "Grand baromètre: la N-VA recule de trois points". lesoir.be. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
14. "CD&V beperkt de schade". HLN. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
15. "Baromètre politique RTBF-La Libre: indécrottable N-VA". RTBF Info. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
16. "2012 Vlaanderenkiest". Vlaanderenkiest.be. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
17. Archived 28 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine
18. "Open VLD op dieptepunt". De Standaard. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
19. Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
20. "Bart De Wever nommé informateur par le Roi". LaLibre.be. 27 May 2014.
21. "Belgium agrees to form coalition government". DW.DE. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
22. "Belgium on course for government led by youngest PM". Uk.reuters.com. Retrieved 11 October 2014.

External links

• 2014 elections, belgium.be