2014 Belgian federal election

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.

2014 Belgian federal election
25 May 2014 (2014-05-25)
All 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives
76 seats needed for a majority
Turnout89.37%
Party Leader % Seats ±
N-VA Bart De Wever 20.26% 33 +6
PS Elio Di Rupo 11.67% 23 -3
CD&V Wouter Beke 11.61% 18 +1
Open Vld Gwendolyn Rutten 9.78% 14 +1
MR Charles Michel 9.64% 20 +2
sp.a Bruno Tobback 8.83% 13 0
Groen Wouter Van Besien 5.32% 6 +1
cdH Benoît Lutgen 4.98% 9 0
PVDA-PTB Peter Mertens 3.72% 2 +2
VB Gerolf Annemans 3.67% 3 -9
ECOLO Olivier Deleuze
& Emily Hoyos 		3.30% 6 -2
FDF Olivier Maingain 1.80% 2 New
PP Mischaël Modrikamen 1.50% 1 0
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Federal Government before Federal Government after
Di Rupo
PS-sp.a-CD&V-cdH-Open VLD-MR		 Michel
MR-Open VLD-CD&V-N-VA

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 constitutionally coincide with the European elections, consequently Belgians will vote for three elections on the same day.

On 25 April 2014, a declaration to amend the Constitution was adopted, formally dissolving parliament and triggering new elections within 40 days.[5]

Electoral system

The 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives are 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.[6] Apportionment of seats is done every ten years, last by royal order of 31 January 2013, based on the population figures of 28 May 2012.

Representatives elected from the five Flemish provinces, Antwerp (24), East Flanders (20), Flemish Brabant (15), Limburg (12) and West Flanders (16), automatically belong to the Dutch-speaking language group in parliament, whereas those elected from the five Walloon provinces, Hainaut (18), Liège (15), Luxembourg (4), Namur (6) and Walloon Brabant (5), form the French-speaking language group. The 15 members elected in Brussels may choose to join either group, though de facto only French-speaking parties reach the threshold.

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.

Voters

All Belgian citizens aged 18 or over are obligated to participate in the election. Foreigners residing in Belgium (regardless of EU citizenship) cannot vote, whereas Belgian citizens living abroad may register to vote. Following the sixth state reform, they can no longer freely choose in which constituency their vote counts; instead the municipality is objectively defined by statutory criteria. Since the previous elections were snap elections, there was more preparation time now, allowing for significantly increased use of the option compared to 2010.

The electoral roll was fixed per 1 March 2014.

20142010difference
Eligible Belgians residing in Belgium7,879,8747,725,463+154,411 (+2.00%)
Eligible Belgians residing abroad128,90242,089+86,813 (+206.26%)
 - voted in-person or by proxy in a municipality in Belgium20,2419,741+10,500 (+107.79%)
 - voted in-person or by proxy in the Belgian diplomatic or consular post where they registered19,08013,089+5,991 (+45.77%)
 - voted by mail89,58119,259+70,322 (+365.14%)
Total8,008,7767,767,552+241,224 (+3.11%)

151 Flemish municipalities and 2 Brussels municipalities voted electronically; the remaining 157 Flemish and 17 Brussels and all 262 Walloon municipalities voted by paper ballot.

Timetable
25 FebruaryStart of the "waiting period" (sperperiode) running until the day of the election, during which political propaganda and expenses are strictly regulated
1 MarchThe electoral roll is fixed by municipal authorities
25 AprilThe Parliament adopts a declaration to amend the Constitution, formally dissolving parliament and triggering elections within 40 days[5]
10 MayFinal day for the official announcement of the election and the convocation letter to voters
21 MayPolling day for Belgians residing abroad in the embassies and consular posts
25 MayPolling day (from 8am until 2pm, or until 4pm where voting is done electronically)
19 JuneConstitutive session of the newly elected Chamber of Representatives

Background and reforms since last election
Main articles: 2010–2011 Belgian government formation, 2007–2011 Belgian political crisis, and Sixth Belgian state reform

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.[7]

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.[8] 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.[9]

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.[10] 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.

Flemish-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 Mileen Verpoorten 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		NewspaperN-VAPSCD&VMRsp.aOpen VldVBCDHEcoloGroenOthersLead
15 April 2014La Libre Belgique20.6%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 2013De Standaard17.6%–12.0%–8.4%8.7%6.7%––6.3%40.4%5.6% over CD&V
6 September 2013La Libre Belgique[11]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 2013Le Soir19.3%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 2013Le Soir[12]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 2013La Libre Belgique[13]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 2013De Standaard[14]20.2%–10.9%–9.3%6.4%6.7%––6.0%40.5%9.3% over CD&V
24 March 2013Le Soir[15]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 2013Het Laatste Nieuws[16]21.0%–9.4%–8.5%7.5%7.0%––5.2%41.4%11.6% over CD&V
22 February 2013La Libre Belgique[17]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 2012Provincial election 2012[18][19]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 2012De Standaard[20]22.6%–11.5%–9.0%6.7%5.9%––4.9%39.4%11.1% over CD&V
10 June 2010Federal election 2010[21]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 1,366,397 20.26 2.86 32.22
33 / 150
 6
Socialist Party (PS) Elio Di Rupo 787,058 11.67 2.03 31.43
23 / 150
 3
Christian Democratic & Flemish (CD&V) Wouter Beke 783,040 11.61 0.76 18.47
18 / 150
 1
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open Vld) Gwendolyn Rutten 659,571 9.78 1.14 15.55
14 / 150
 1
Reformist Movement (MR) Charles Michel 650,260 9.64 0.36 25.96
20 / 150
 2
Socialist Party–Differently (sp.a) Bruno Tobback 595,466 8.83 0.41 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 336,184 4.98 0.54 13.43
9 / 150
 0
Workers' Party (PTB–GO!/PVDA+)


 Peter Mertens
PVDA+
PTB–GO!
 251,276
118,333
132,943		 3.72
1.75
1.97		 2.17 —
3.24
5.31
2 / 150


 2


Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang) Gerolf Annemans 247,738 3.67 4.09 5.84
3 / 150
 9
Ecolo Olivier Deleuze & Emily Hoyos 222,524 3.30 1.50 8.89
6 / 150
 2
Francophone Democratic Federalists (FDF) Olivier Maingain 121,384 1.80 new 4.85
2 / 150
 2
People's Party (Parti Populaire) Mischaël Modrikamen 102,581 1.52 0.23 4.10
1 / 150
 0
Libertarian, Direct, Democratic (LDD) Jean-Marie Dedecker 28,414 0.42 1.89 0.67
0 / 150
 1
Others (parties that received less than 1% of the overall vote) 233,707 3.47 — —
0 / 150
 0
Valid votes 6,744,547 94.23
Blank and invalid votes 412,951 5.77
Totals 7,157,498 100.00 — —
150 / 150
 0
Electorate and voter turnout 8,008,776 89.37 0.23
Source: Federal Portal − Chamber Elections 2014
Notes:
1) E.c. = electoral college (Dutch- and French-speaking)

In detail
Dutch-speaking constituenciesBilingual constituency
PartyAntwerpEast FlandersFlemish BrabantLimburgWest FlandersBrussels
VotesPerc.SeatsVotesPerc.SeatsVotesPerc.SeatsVotesPerc.SeatsVotesPerc.SeatsVotesPerc.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 constituenciesBilingual constituency
PartyHainautLiègeLuxembourgNamurWalloon BrabantBrussels
VotesPerc.SeatsVotesPerc.SeatsVotesPerc.SeatsVotesPerc.SeatsVotesPerc.SeatsVotesPerc.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
Main article: 2014 Belgian 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.[22]

After five months of discussions, a centre-right 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.[23] 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."[24]

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. 25 AVRIL 2014. - Déclaration de révision de la Constitution, Belgian Official Journal
  6. Electoral system IPU
  7. "CD&V schort campagne op na overlijden van Dehaene". deredactie.be. 15 May 2014.
  8. "Three die in Brussels shooting at Jewish Museum". deredactie.be. 24 May 2014.
  9. Laurent Louis (24 May 2014). "Facebook post by Laurent LOUIS".
  10. "Groen en Ecolo op één federale lijst in Brussel". deredactie.be. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  11. "Baromètre: La N-VA gagne 2.7% en Flandre!". Lalibre.be. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  12. "Le PS en net recul en Wallonie, la N-VA toujours loin devant en Flandre". les documents du Soir. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  13. "La N-VA perd du poids, le PS en petite forme". Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  14. "N-VA krijgt een tik". De Standaard. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  15. "Grand baromètre: la N-VA recule de trois points". lesoir.be. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  16. "CD&V beperkt de schade". HLN. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  17. "Baromètre politique RTBF-La Libre: indécrottable N-VA". RTBF Info. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  18. "2012 Vlaanderenkiest". Vlaanderenkiest.be. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  19. Archived 28 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  20. "Open VLD op dieptepunt". De Standaard. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  21. Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  22. "Bart De Wever nommé informateur par le Roi". LaLibre.be. 27 May 2014.
  23. "Belgium agrees to form coalition government". DW.DE. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
  24. "Belgium on course for government led by youngest PM". Uk.reuters.com. Retrieved 11 October 2014.
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