| Country: | Belgium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous Election: | 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next Election: | 2014 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Next Year: | 2014 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Federal elections were held in Belgium on 13 June 2010,[1] 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 (Open VLD) 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.[2] It took a world record 541 days until a government was formed, resulting in a government led by Di Rupo.[3]
Yves Leterme served as the caretaker prime minister of the country for the period that it had no official government.[4]
See main article: Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. Following a continued lack of agreement over how to resolve the conflict over the electoral arrondissement of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, the liberal Open VLD left the government on 22 April 2010, continuing the 2007–2011 Belgian political crisis. Prime Minister Yves Leterme (Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams, CD&V) immediately offered his resignation to King Albert II, who accepted it on 26 April 2010. Following the elections held on 13 June, there were fears that coalition-building may take so long that Belgium's presidency of the Council of the European Union, which starts on 1 July 2010, might have to start under a caretaker government.[5] [6] [7]
According to a statement by the Flemish President of the Constitutional Court, Marc Bossuyt, the elections might be ruled unconstitutional unless the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde arrondissement is split up beforehand.[8] [9] [10] [11] [12] On 4 May, all but one Flemish judge-president of the 13 Flemish Courts of First Instance wrote a collective letter, saying that the elections cannot be held with the current electoral districts and that a return to the previous electoral arrondissements is necessary.[13] In contrast, Ghislain Londers, the president of the Court of Cassation declared that all judges are obliged to cooperate with the electoral process. Before the judges' letters, former president of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives Herman De Croo stated that no court could prevent the elections from taking place.[12]
The international media saw the election as crucial to determine the future of the country, even though it was admitted that devolution would not happen immediately.[14]
The parliament was dissolved by Declaration of Revision of the Constitution on 7 May 2010 and elections were called by royal order of the same day.[15] The period with rules and limits on campaign spending (sperperiode), which normally runs three months prior to election day, started that day.
Voting occurred on Sunday 13 June 2010 between 08:00 and 13:00 in polling stations with paper ballots, and between 08:00 and 15:00 in those with electronic voting.
The newly elected parliament was to convene on 6 July 2010.
See also: Political parties in Belgium.
These Flemish parties field candidates in the regions of Flanders and the partially bilingual electoral district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.
These Francophone parties fielded candidates in the region of Wallonia and in the electoral district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.
Leterme stepped aside on 28 April 2010 and was replaced as leader of CD&V by Marianne Thyssen.[16]
Notable newcomers in politics:
As of May 26, it appeared that the major development in the election was the surge in popularity of the N-VA in Flanders. Led by Bart De Wever, it supports eventual independence for Flanders, and an immediate switch from a federal Belgium to a confederal Belgium. The N-VA replaces the CD&V of outgoing PM Yves Leterme as the most popular party in Flanders. This development opens the question of how the francophone parties might react to forming a government with an openly sovereigntist, but politically centrist party if they do win a plurality of votes in Flanders. It appeared that the N-VA had attracted some popularity from the ethnic nationalist party, Vlaams Belang.[18]
| Flemish constituency | Francophone constituency | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Source | CD&V | N-VA | SP–A | VB | Groen! | LDD | PS | MR–FDF | CDH | Ecolo | FN | PP | RWF | ||
| 10 June 2007 | 2007 election | 29.6% | 18.8% | 16.3% | 19.0% | 6.3% | 6.5% | 29.5% | 31.2% | 15.8% | 12.8% | 5.6% | / | / | ||
| 29 March 2010 | La Libre Belgique[19] | 20.0% | 17.8% | 13.8% | 15.5% | 17.3% | 8.1% | 5.5% | 31.7% | 20.5% | 15.5% | 20.2% | / | 4.3% | / | |
| 4 May 2010 | l'Avenir[20] | 18.9% | 22.9% | 14.8% | 14.2% | 12.5% | 7.9% | 3.9% | 32.5% | 21.1% | 18.2% | 17.6% | 2.9% | <1% | 2.0% | |
| 26 May 2010 | Dimarso[21] | 19.5% | 26.0% | 12.4% | 16.0% | 10.3% | 7.8% | 5.4% | ||||||||
| 28 May 2010 | l'Avenir[22] | 33.0% | 20.4% | 17.0% | 17.6% | 2.5% | 1.9% | 1.9% | ||||||||
| 4 June 2010 | Standaard/VRT[23] | 19.0% | 25.2% | 13.9% | 13.8% | 11.5% | 8.2% | 6.2% | ||||||||
| June 2010 | La Libre Belgique[24] | 16.2% | 26% | 13.6% | 16.3% | 15% | 6.8% | 4.3% | 30% | 20.2% | 16.1% | 18.9% | 4.1% | 4.1% | / | |
After polls showed the N-VA receiving 29% of votes in their region, media interpreted the election as a "victory for Flemish independence".[25] The following tables contain percentages on the national level (i.e. the result of N-VA is 17.4% on the national level, while it is 27.8% on the regional level).
| Region | Seats won per party | Total seats | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constituency | N-VA | CD&V | SP.A | VLD | VB | GROEN! | LDD | |||
| align=left rowspan=6 | Flanders | Antwerp | ||||||||
| B.H.V. | ||||||||||
| East Flanders | ||||||||||
 Leuven | ||||||||||
| Limburg | ||||||||||
| West Flanders | ||||||||||
| Total | ||||||||||
| PS | MR | CDH | ECOLO | PP | ||||||
| align=left rowspan=6 | Wallonia | B.H.V. | ||||||||
| Hainaut | ||||||||||
| Liège | ||||||||||
| Luxembourg | ||||||||||
| Namur | ||||||||||
| Walloon Brabant | ||||||||||
| Total | ||||||||||
| Region | % won per party | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constituency | N-VA | CD&V | SP.A | VLD | VB | GROEN! | LDD | Others | ||
| align=left rowspan=6 | Flanders | Antwerp | 30.71 | 15.53 | 14.32 | 11.03 | 16.15 | 7.69 | 2.29 | 2.28 |
| B.H.V. | 12.23 | 6.94 | 4.64 | 7.17 | 5.03 | — | — | |||
| East Flanders | 28.15 | 15.40 | 14.15 | 17.40 | 12.33 | 7.36 | 3.19 | 2.04 | ||
| Leuven | 27.05 | 16.26 | 17.79 | 14.51 | 9.61 | 9.79 | 3.14 | 1.86 | ||
| Limburg | 28.83 | 18.81 | 18.14 | 12.10 | 12.79 | 4.81 | 2.89 | 1.62 | ||
| West Flanders | 23.89 | 23.01 | 15.13 | 13.53 | 9.07 | 6.31 | 7.67 | 1.27 | ||
| PS | MR | CDH | ECOLO | PP | ||||||
| align=left rowspan=6 | Wallonia | B.H.V. | 16.74 | 19.17 | 8.07 | 7.99 | — | 12.01* | ||
| Hainaut | 48.18 | 17.52 | 11.47 | 9.41 | 2.75 | 10.67 | ||||
| Liège | 35.79 | 22.30 | 13.93 | 13.83 | 3.08 | 11.07 | ||||
| Luxembourg | 28.49 | 19.54 | 31.41 | 11.71 | 2.44 | 6.41 | ||||
| Namur | 32.20 | 24.65 | 15.92 | 13.38 | 3.12 | 10.73 | ||||
| Walloon Brabant | 22.48 | 35.79 | 12.89 | 16.33 | 5.04 | 7.47 | ||||
These maps depict the largest party in each constituency.
Legend:
Legend:
Candidates receiving the highest number of preferential votes.
For the Senate:[26]
| For the Chamber:[27]
|
See main article: 2010–2011 Belgian government formation.
On possible coalitions, election winner Bart De Wever announced he would seek negotiations with the Francophone Socialist Party.[28] The Socialist Party leader Elio di Rupo was tapped to become the next Prime Minister, because the socialist parties emerged as the largest "party family" in the elections, and because the New Flemish Alliance lacks a Francophone counterpart.[29] [30] [31]
Philip Blenkinsop of Reuters stated that the win of the New Flemish Alliance could have negative effects because "Belgium can ill afford drawn-out coalition talks because it has a large debt and any policy paralysis could make the country vulnerable on financial markets that are closely watching a sovereign debt crisis."[32]
Coalition formation continued for a record-breaking 541 days, with a government under Elio Di Rupo eventually being formed on 6 December 2011 after agreement was reached on the 2012 budget. The Di Rupo I Government included the Liberal, Socialist and Christian Democratic parties from both Flanders and Wallonia. The government excludes the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the Greens of Groen and Ecolo, Vlaams Belang on the right, the Lijst Dedecker and the People's Party. N-VA's absence, together with the unwillingness of Open Vld to enter into an eight-party coalition that included the green parties, meant the government coalition lacked a majority in the Dutch language group. It was the first time that the Belgian prime minister has been openly gay and the world's first male openly gay head of government[33] Belgium was thus the second European country to have a homosexual prime minister, after Iceland (Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir). Elio Di Rupo was the first native French-speaking prime minister since 1979 and the first Walloon prime minister since 1974.