2019 Belgian regional elections

The 2019 Belgian regional elections took place on Sunday 26 May, the same day as the 2019 European Parliament election[1] as well as the Belgian federal election.[2][3]

Map of results by constituency, province, or canton

In the regional elections, new representatives were chosen for the Flemish Parliament, Walloon Parliament, Brussels Parliament and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community. The Parliament of the French Community was composed of all elected members of the Walloon Parliament (except German-speaking members) and 19 of the French-speaking members of the Brussels Parliament.

The elections followed the 2014 elections and were shortly after the 2018 local elections, which indicated voters' tendencies after an unusually long period of time without any elections in Belgium.

Electoral system

The regional parliaments have limited power over their own election; federal law largely regulates this and the federal government organises the elections, which occur per Article 117 of the Constitution on the same day as the European Parliament elections.

As such, all regional parliaments were elected using proportional representation under the D'Hondt method. Only Belgian citizens in Belgium had the right to vote, and voting was mandatory for them. Belgians living abroad were allowed to vote in European and federal elections, but not in regional elections.

The following timetable is fixed for the simultaneous European, federal and regional elections:

26 January 2019Start of the "waiting period" (sperperiode) running until the day of the election, during which political propaganda and expenses are strictly regulated
1 March 2019The electoral roll is fixed by municipal authorities
11 May 2019Final day for the official announcement of the election and the convocation letter to voters
26 May 2019Polling day (from 8am until 2pm, or until 4pm where voting is done electronically)

Flemish Parliament

2019 Flemish parliamentary election

26 May 2019 (2019-05-26)

All 124 seats in the Flemish Parliament
63 seats needed for a majority
Turnout92.2%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Bart De Wever Filip Dewinter Hilde Crevits
Party N-VA VB CD&V
Leader's seat Antwerp Antwerp West Flanders
Last election 43 seats, 31.9% 6 seats, 5.9% 27 seats, 20.5%
Seats won 35 23 19
Seat change Decrease 8 Increase 17 Decrease 8
Popular vote 1,052,252 783,977 652,766
Percentage 24.8% 18.5% 15.4%
Swing Decrease 7.1 pp Increase 12.6 pp Decrease 5.1 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Party Open Vld sp.a Groen
Last election 19 seats, 14.2% 18 seats, 14.0% 10 seats, 8.7%
Seats won 16 13 14
Seat change Decrease 3 Decrease 5 Increase 4
Popular vote 556,630 438,589 428,696
Percentage 13.1% 10.3% 10.1%
Swing Decrease 1.1 pp Decrease 3.7 pp Increase 1.4 pp


Flemish Government before election

Bourgeois Government
N-VACD&VOpen Vld coalition

Elected Flemish Government

Jambon Government
N-VA-CD&V-Open Vld coalition

Number of seats per constituency in Flanders

124 members of the Flemish Parliament were elected. The five Flemish provinces (West Flanders, East Flanders, Antwerp, Flemish Brabant and Limburg) each were a constituency, plus the Brussels-Capital Region where those voting for a Dutch-language party could also vote in the Flemish election.

The incumbent Bourgeois Government was made up of a coalition of Flemish nationalists (N-VA), Christian democrats (CD&V) and liberals (Open Vld). The incumbent Minister-President was Geert Bourgeois (N-VA). The three-party centre-right government coalition had a comfortable majority.

In the October 2018 local elections, no major shifts occurred, although N-VA and sp.a lost some support while Vlaams Belang and Groen generally gained votes. CD&V and Open Vld remained stable.

Incumbent Minister-President Bourgois (N-VA) contended in the simultaneous European Parliament elections; N-VA president Bart De Wever (N-VA) was their party's candidate to succeed him as head of the Flemish Government. Minister Hilde Crevits was CD&V's candidate for Minister-President. Open Vld explicitly did not put forward a candidate.

Parties in the Flemish Parliament
Political partyParty leader2014 seatsCurrent seats
New Flemish Alliance (N-VA)Bart De Wever (since 2004)43 (government)35 (government)
Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V)Wouter Beke (since 2010)27 (government)19 (government)
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open Vld)Gwendolyn Rutten (since 2012)19 (government)16 (government)
Socialist Party Different (sp.a)John Crombez (since 2015)18 (opposition)13 (opposition)
Green (Groen)Meyrem Almaci (since 2014)10 (opposition)14 (opposition)
Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang)Tom Van Grieken (since 2014)6 (opposition)23 (opposition)
Union des Francophones (UF)1 (opposition)0
Workers' Party of Belgium (PVDA)04 (opposition)
IndependentsN/A0

Main candidates

The following candidates are the first on the respective party list (lijsttrekker) per constituency.

Party  Antwerp  East Flanders  Flemish Brabant  Limburg  West Flanders  Brussels
CD&V Koen Van den Heuvel Joke Schauvliege Peter Van Rompuy Lode Ceyssens Hilde Crevits Benjamin Dalle
Groen Meyrem Almaci Bjorn Rzoska An Moerenhout Johan Daenen Jeremie Vaneeckhout Stijn Bex
N-VA Bart De Wever Matthias Diependaele Ben Weyts Steven Vandeput Bert Maertens Karl Vanlouwe
Open Vld Bart Somers Carina Van Cauter Gwendolyn Rutten Lydia Peeters Bart Tommelein Else Ampe
PVDA Jos D'Haese Tom De Meester Sander Vandecapelle Kim De Witte Natalie Eggermont Nele Vandenbempt
sp.a Caroline Gennez Conner Rousseau Bruno Tobback Els Robeyns Annick Lambrecht Bert Anciaux
Vlaams Belang Filip Dewinter Guy D'haeseleer Klaas Slootmans Chris Janssens (politician) Stefaan Sintobin Frédéric Erens

Retiring incumbents

Results

Summary of the results of the 26 May 2019 Belgian election to the Flemish Parliament
PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
New Flemish Alliance1,052,25224.83−7.0635−8
Flemish Interest783,97718.50+12.5823+17
Christian Democratic and Flemish652,76615.40−5.0819−8
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats556,63013.13−1.0116−3
Socialist Party Differently[lower-alpha 1]438,58910.35−3.6413−5
Groen428,69610.11+1.4114+4
Workers' Party of Belgium225,5935.32+2.804+4
DierAnimal36,9440.87New0New
Union of Francophones28,8040.68−0.150±0
Pirate Party9,1480.22−0.400±0
PRO5,6850.13New0New
D-SA4,5690.11New0New
Be.One4,0640.10New0New
PV&S2,8130.07New0New
Genoeg vr iedereen2,6500.06New0New
Burgerlijst2,0330.05New0New
RP1,6590.04New0New
De Coöperatie1,4020.03New0New
Total4,238,274100.00124
Valid votes4,238,27495.05
Invalid/blank votes220,7904.95
Total votes4,459,064100.00
Registered voters/turnout4,838,56692.16
Source: IBZ

Distribution by province

Province N-VA VB CD&V Open VLD sp.a Groen PVDA
 % S  % S  % S  % S % S % S  % S
Antwerp 31.8212 18.466 11.434 10.213 7.932 9.874 6.682
East Flanders 22.246 20.646 13.484 15.854 10.273 10.523 5.521
Flemish Brabant 25.786 13.263 13.043 15.613 9.502 12.223 4.610
Limburg 22.034 20.153 19.203 11.892 13.542 6.711 5.711
West Flanders 19.675 20.215 23.475 12.343 12.183 7.081 3.430
Brussels 18.962 8.490 8.420 16.331 13.381 28.032 6.380
Total 24.8335 18.5023 15.4019 13.1316 10.3512 10.1114 5.324
Source: Federal Public Services Home Affairs

Walloon Parliament

2019 Walloon parliamentary election

26 May 2019 (2019-05-26)

All 75 seats in the Walloon Parliament
38 seats needed for a majority
Turnout93.4%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Elio Di Rupo Charles Michel Jean-Marc Nollet
Zakia Khattabi
Party PS MR Ecolo
Last election 30 seats, 30.9% 25 seats, 26.7% 4 seats, 8.6%
Seats won 23 20 12
Seat change Decrease 7 Decrease 5 Increase 8
Popular vote 532,422 435,878 294,631
Percentage 26.2% 21.4% 14.5%
Swing Decrease 4.7 pp Decrease 5.3 pp Increase 5.9 pp

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Peter Mertens Maxime Prévot
Party PVDA-PTB cdH
Last election 2 seats, 5.8% 13 seats, 15.2%
Seats won 10 10
Seat change Increase 8 Decrease 3
Popular vote 278,343 223,775
Percentage 13.7% 11.0%
Swing Increase 7.9 pp Decrease 4.2 pp


Walloon Government before election

Magnette Government
PScdH coalition

Elected Walloon Government

Marcourt Government
PSMREcolo coalition

75 members of the Walloon Parliament were elected. The members were elected in multi-member arrondissement-based constituencies; the Walloon Parliament is the only parliament in Belgium still using this geographical level for constituencies. A January 2018 law however reduced the constituencies from 13 to 11, following a successful challenge by Ecolo to the Constitutional Court that constituencies with too few seats are unrepresentative. Both Luxembourg constituencies were merged and the Hainaut constituencies were redrawn.

After the 2014 elections, a coalition government of the Socialist Party (PS) and Christian democrats (cdH) was formed. In 2017 however, following major scandals involving mainly PS, cdH opted to continue governing with MR as the main party instead of PS. Willy Borsus (MR) succeeded Paul Magnette (PS) as Minister-President of Wallonia in July 2017. This was the first time a government majority changed during a legislative term of a Belgian regional government.[9]

Parties in the Walloon Parliament
Political partyParty leader2014 seatsCurrent seats
Socialist Party (PS)Elio Di Rupo (since 1999)30 (government)30 (opposition)
Reformist Movement (MR)Charles Michel (since 2019)25 (opposition)25 (government)
Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH)Maxime Prévot (since 2019)13 (government)13 (government)
Ecolo (Ecolo)Zakia Khattabi & Patrick Dupriez (since 2015)4 (opposition)4 (opposition)
Workers' Party (PVDA-PTB)Peter Mertens (since 2008)2 (opposition)2 (opposition)
People's Party (Parti Populaire)Mischaël Modrikamen (since 2009)1 (opposition)N/A
IndependentsN/A1 (opposition)

Results

Summary of the results of the 26 May 2019 Walloon regional election
PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Socialist Party532,42226.17−4.7323−7
Reformist Movement435,87821.42−5.2620−5
Ecolo294,63114.48+5.8612+8
Workers' Party of Belgium278,34313.68+7.9210+8
Humanist Democratic Centre223,77511.00−4.1710−3
Democratic, Federalist, Independent84,2194.14+1.610±0
People's Party74,6223.67+1.200−1
Destexhe Lists30,8781.52New0New
Citizen Collective26,6731.31New0New
DierAnimal18,4170.91−1.220±0
Nation9,6490.47−0.060±0
Wallonie Unbowed8,1550.40New0New
ACT7,1460.35New0New
Tomorrow3,4070.17−1.220±0
The Right4,4430.22−1.220±0
Communist Party of Belgium9440.05New0New
Referendum6210.03−0.060±0
Turquoise5900.03New0New
Total2,034,813100.0075
Valid votes2,034,81391.64
Invalid/blank votes185,6308.36
Total votes2,220,443100.00
Registered voters/turnout2,563,03386.63
Source: IBZ

Distribution by province

Province PS MR Ecolo PTB cdH
 % S  % S  % S  % S  % S
Hainaut 33.23 11 16.97 5 11.64 3 15.96 5 8.78 3
Liège 25.47 7 20.41 6 15.45 4 15.34 4 9.34 2
Luxembourg 19.58 1 25.27 2 14.74 1 9.05 0 22.51 2
Namur 23.21 3 21.97 3 14.98 2 12.30 1 15.40 2
Walloon Brabant 14.92 1 34.04 4 19.76 2 7.53 0 8.43 1
Total 26.17 23 21.42 20 14.48 12 13.68 10 11.00 10
Source: Federal Public Services Home Affairs

Brussels Parliament

All 89 members of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region were elected. They were elected at-large, but there were separate Dutch-language party lists (electing 17 members) and French-language party lists (electing 72 members). Those voting for a Dutch-language party could also cast a vote for the Flemish Parliament election.

Results

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
French language group
Socialist Party85,53022.0317-4
Ecolo74,24619.1215+7
Reformist Movement65,50216.8713-5
Francophone Democratic Federalists53,63813.8110-2
Workers' Party of Belgium52,29713.4710+4
Humanist Democratic Centre29,4367.586-3
Destexhe Lists10,0522.59
People's Party6,6051.70
DierAnimal5,1131.321+1
Collectif Citoyen2,0290.52
act-SALEM1,4960.39
Plan B1,1150.29
6970.18
be@eu5220.13
Total388,278100.0072
Dutch language group
Green14,42520.614+1
New Flemish Alliance12,57817.973
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats11,05115.793-2
one.brussels-sp.a10,54015.063
Flemish Interest5,8388.341
Christian Democratic and Flemish5,2317.471-1
Agora3,6295.181+1
Workers' Party of Belgium2,9924.271+1
Be.One3,0214.32
DierAnimal6910.99
Total69,996100.0017
Valid votes451,57093.26
Invalid/blank votes32,6436.74
Total votes484,213100.00
Registered voters/turnout588,20382.32
Source: IBZ

Distribution by district

French language group
District PS Ecolo MR DéFI PTB cdH DierAnimal
 % S  % S  % S  % S  % S  % S  % S
Anderlecht 32.00 15.29 15.55 8.81 19.02 7.00 1.34
Brussels 29.00 16.46 12.33 9.59 17.36 8.32 1.17
Ixelles 13.24 27.15 20.38 18.27 8.35 5.50 1.46
Molenbeek-Saint-Jean 28.42 14.25 14.13 8.71 17.00 10.26 1.24
Saint-Gilles 25.20 27.72 9.65 6.89 19.79 4.67 1.28
Saint-Josse-ten-Noode 14.34 18.81 22.78 21.19 6.94 8.96 1.20
Schaerbeek 26.09 18.13 10.81 16.45 15.11 7.08 1.14
Uccle 14.96 22.72 24.13 15.13 9.27 5.75 1.72
Total 22.03 17 19.12 15 16.87 13 13.81 10 13.47 10 7.58 6 1.32 1
Source: Federal Public Services Home Affairs
Dutch language group
District Groen N-VA Open VLD sp.a VB CD&V Agora PVDA
% S % S % S % S % S % S % S % S
Anderlecht 12.45 22.30 13.83 16.18 13.52 8.15 2.10 4.36
Brussels 21.91 17.05 14.29 17.63 7.52 7.96 2.91 4.79
Ixelles 27.16 15.52 17.27 12.35 5.22 6.03 9.74 3.30
Molenbeek-Saint-Jean 16.17 19.99 15.14 17.85 10.61 7.95 2.03 4.19
Saint-Gilles 28.69 11.27 10.72 19.16 4.53 3.60 9.56 6.47
Saint-Josse-ten-Noode 22.18 17.36 21.53 9.99 6.27 9.20 7.43 0.97
Schaerbeek 23.09 16.22 14.71 13.15 7.84 6.91 7.14 5.65
Uccle 23.27 17.96 17.48 13.06 5.90 6.20 8.40 3.50
Total 20.61 4 17.97 3 15.79 3 15.06 3 8.34 1 7.47 1 5.18 1 4.27 1
Source: Federal Public Services Home Affairs

German-speaking Community Parliament

All 25 members of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community were elected in one constituency (at-large).

In the 2014–2019 period, the government was made up of regionalist ProDG, the socialist party and the liberal PFF, headed by Minister-President Oliver Paasch (ProDG).

Results by municipality
Parties in the German Parliament
Political partyMembers
 Christian Social Party (CSP)7 (opposition)
 ProDG6 (government)
 Socialist Party (SP)4 (government)
 Party for Freedom and Progress (PFF)4 (government)
 Ecolo2 (opposition)
 Vivant2 (opposition)
Total25

Results

PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
ProDG9,14623.33+1.13%6
Christian Social Party9,06923.14-1.72%6-1
Socialist Party5,82014.85-1.23%4
Vivant5,80714.81+4.20%3+1
Ecolo4,90212.51+2.96%3+1
Party for Freedom and Progress4,45411.36-4.18%3-1
Total39,198100.0025
Valid votes39,19892.22
Invalid/blank votes3,3057.78
Total votes42,503100.00
Registered voters/turnout49,44185.97
Source: Federal Public Services Home Affairs

Distribution by district

District ProDG CSP SP Vivant Ecolo PFF
% S  % S  % S % S % S  % S
Eupen 22.31 24.32 16.75 9.09 11.93 12.27
St. Vith 24.53 21.75 12.63 21.49 9.29 10.30
Total 23.33 6 23.14 6 14.85 4 14.81 3 12.51 3 11.36 3
Source: Federal Public Services Home Affairs

Notes

  1. Including one seat from a join sp.a–one list in Brussels

References

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