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On June 9, Belgians will elect not only their representatives for the European parliament, but also the new federal parliament and the regional parliaments.
With a dozen parties in the national parliament and regional state structures scattered along the country’s internal linguistic borders, the results risk sending the small but fragmented country into a months-long institutional stalemate. Belgium already holds the world record for the longest period without a government: it took 541 days in 2010-2011 to achieve it.
The current government majority is a “rainbow coalition” made up of two 7 parties: Flemish Liberals (MR), Francophone Liberals (Open VLD), Flemish Socialists (SP.A, later renamed Vooruit), Francophone Socialists (PS), Flemish Greens (Groen), Francophone Greens (Ecolo) and Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V). Prime Minister since 2020 is the Flemish liberal Alexander De Croo.
In fact, not only is the Belgian political landscape very fragmented but two of the country’s major parties want the end of Belgium as a unitary state. Indeed, polls suggest that the two Flemish nationalist parties are destined to win a majority of voters in Flanders, the northern half of the Flemish-speaking (the local Dutch dialect) country. The far-right pro-independence party Vlaams Belang (VB) aims not only to win the majority of Flemish votes but to thus become the largest party in the country. The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a conservative Flemish nationalist formation. independentists could be the second largest party in Flanders and the third largest in Belgium, potentially becoming a point of reference in coalition talks for the new government
Vlaams Belang wants to divide the country in the coming years, starting with a “declaration of sovereignty” supported by the Flemish majority if it becomes part of the regional government of Flanders. N-VA has rejected short-term separatism and instead wants to reform the Belgian state into a “confederal” state, shifting all power to the regional level leaving the federal government with only national defense and little more.
But even if these two parties reach a majority in the Flemish regional parliament, any kind of separation will have to be negotiated with the French-speaking parties, in particular with the Socialist Party, which is destined to be the first formation in Wallonia and Brussels.
Some Francophone parties have opened up to the idea of reforming the state, but categorically reject the complete division of the country. Indeed, some, including some Flemish parties, intend to take the opposite path and bring competences back to the federal level to untangle the intricate and inefficient current federal structure of Belgium.
Most Flemish voters can only vote for Flemish parties, while Francophones can vote for Francophone parties. In the autonomous region of Brussels, however, the inhabitants can choose which parties to vote for. There is also a small German-speaking minority that elects its own parliament which deals mainly with cultural politics.
The division of political parties between Francophones and Flemish speakers has practically doubled the number of national parties and created a fragmented political landscape, with the parties’ attention focused on their respective regions. The only exception is the far-left Workers’ Party (PvdA-PTB), which operates as a single national party.
Traditionally, Flanders is oriented to the right, while Wallonia tends to be oriented to the left. This made forming a federal government quite a feat. After June 9, the parties will begin to build coalitions for four governments: the federal one, the Flemish one, the Walloon one and the autonomous one in Brussels.
The current Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is a member of the Flemish liberal party Open-VLD which is the seventh largest party in terms of number of seats in the national parliament. It is quite normal in Belgium for the Prime Minister not to belong to the major party but to emerge from a negotiation between the different parties. This time too it won’t be different. Even if the far-right Vlaams Belang party comes out on top, political parties have built a “cordon sanitaire” to exclude the far right from government.
In the northern region of Flanders, immigration is one of voters’ main concerns. This explains the strong position of Vlaams Belang, an anti-immigration party that calls for the closure of borders. In Wallonia, however, the economy and the reduction in purchasing power are the most important problem, while in Brussels security has recently become the voters’ priority.
Belgium is one of only four countries in the European Union to have compulsory voting. For this reason, voter turnout is usually around 90%. For the first time in Belgium, 16-year-olds will also vote this year, which could significantly influence the election outcome.
THE POLITICAL-ELECTORAL SYSTEM
Belgium is a federal, representative, democratic and 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 rests with both the government and the two houses of parliament, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The federation is made up of (linguistic) communities and (territorial) regions. Philip he is the seventh and current King of the Belgians, having ascended the throne on 21 July 2013.
The Constitution of Belgium, the primary source of law and the basis of the country’s political system, was promulgated on 7 February 1831. It has been amended several times, but the most significant reforms were made in 1970 and 1993.
The King of the Belgians is the constitutional head of the Belgian state and holds office for life. The duties of the king are established by the Belgian Constitution and other laws applied under it.
As the titular head of state, the king plays a ceremonial and symbolic role in the nation. His main political function is to designate a political leader to form a new cabinet after an election or the resignation of a cabinet. Under conditions of a “constructive vote of no confidence”, the government must resign and the lower house of Parliament proposes a new prime minister to the king. The king is also seen as a symbolic unifying role, representing a common Belgian national identity.
Executive power is held by the Prime Minister and by the ministers, who together form the Council of Ministers, and come on Secretaries of State, each of which depends on a minister and is part of the federal government, but does not sit in the Council of Ministers. The federal government must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives.
The Federal Parliament Belgian is composed of Senate (Dutch: Senaat, French: Sénat) and from House of Representatives (Dutch: Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers, French: Chambre des Représentants). The Chamber has 150 members; the Senate has 60. All 150 representatives are directly elected through a system of proportional representation. The Senate is made up of 50 senators elected indirectly by the parliaments of the communities and regions and 10 senators appointed by the other senators.
The Senate has very limited powers compared to the Chamber: except in cases concerning the constitutional, institutional or federal structure or international relations, the consent of the Senate is not even required (most laws, such as the financial one, are the so-called ” unicameral laws”, voted only by the Chamber). The House of Representatives is also the only chamber that votes confidence in the Government.
Each of the five components of the federal system ( Flemish community , French Community, German community , Walloon region and RBrussels-Capital region ) has its own directly elected unicameral council or parliament. They vote on decrees (or ordinances in Brussels), which have the same value and are on the same legal level as federal laws.
The judicial system is based on civil law and has its origins in the Napoleonic Code. It has judicial control of legislative acts. The Court of Appeal is one level lower than the Court of Cassation (Dutch: Hof van Cassatie, French: Cour de Cassation) which is the most important court in Belgium. Judges are appointed for life by the Belgian monarch.
According to the “Democratic Index” of the weekly The Economist, Belgium is a so-called “Imperfect Democracy”, at the level of countries such as Italy, Slovenia, Botswana and Cape Verde.
On the next pages, the political history of the country, the results of the latest elections, the main political parties and the latest polls.
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