Belgium Federal election 2019 — Results

At a glance

Belgium elected its 150-seat federal Chamber of Representatives on 26 May 2019, the same day as the regional and European votes. The result fragmented an already-divided parliament. In Flanders the Flemish-nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) remained the largest party nationally with 16.03% and 25 seats but lost ground to the far-right Vlaams Belang, which surged to 11.95% and 18 seats. In Wallonia the Socialist Party (PS) finished first with 9.46% and 20 seats despite losses, while the radical-left Workers' Party (PVDA-PTB) and the Greens (Ecolo) advanced sharply. Turnout, under Belgium's compulsory-voting rules, was 88.38%.

Political system

Belgium is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The King is a ceremonial head of state; executive power rests with a federal government that must hold the confidence of the Chamber of Representatives, the directly elected lower house. Above and alongside the federal level sit the governments of the three Regions (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels-Capital) and the three Communities (Flemish, French and German-speaking), each with its own parliament and competences — a layered structure built up by successive state reforms since 1970 to manage the country's linguistic divisions.

A divided party system

Belgium has no genuinely national parties. The Dutch-speaking north and the French-speaking south have entirely separate party systems, and voters can only choose lists in their own language group. On the Flemish side stand the N-VA, Vlaams Belang, the Christian-democratic CD&V, the liberal Open Vld, the social-democratic Vooruit (then sp.a), Groen and the far-left PVDA. On the Francophone side are the PS, the liberal Reformist Movement (MR), Ecolo, the centrist cdH (later Les Engagés) and DéFI, plus the Francophone wing of the PTB. The German-speaking community, the smallest, has its own small parties.

Electoral system

The 150 members are elected by proportional representation (D'Hondt method) in 11 constituencies corresponding to the ten provinces plus Brussels-Capital, with a 5% threshold within each constituency. Voting is compulsory, which keeps turnout near 90%. Because no party can win seats outside its own language region, the map on this page colours each region by the party that finished first there — N-VA in Flanders, the PS in Wallonia, and Ecolo in Brussels.

The campaign trail

The election followed the collapse of Charles Michel's centre-right government in December 2018, when the N-VA quit the coalition over Belgium's signing of the UN Migration Pact. Migration, security and the future of the federation dominated the Flemish debate, while climate — after months of school strikes — and social policy drove the Francophone campaign, producing a "green wave" in the south and in Brussels.

Main parties

The largest forces were the N-VA (Bart De Wever), seeking more Flemish autonomy; the resurgent far-right Vlaams Belang (Tom Van Grieken); the PS (Elio Di Rupo), still dominant in Wallonia; the liberal MR (Charles Michel); and the greens Ecolo and Groen, both of which gained strongly.

Result and the formation crisis

The election deepened the structural divide between a Flanders voting for the centre-right and nationalist parties and a Wallonia voting for the left, leaving almost no coalition that could command a majority while balancing the two language groups. The result was one of the longest government-formation crises in Belgian history: 494 days passed before a federal government took office, surpassed only by the record set after 2010. Charles Michel's caretaker administration, and from late 2019 Sophie Wilmès as the country's first female prime minister, governed in the interim — including through the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Vivaldi coalition

Only in October 2020 did the seven-party "Vivaldi" coalition — socialists, liberals, greens and the Flemish Christian-democrats, named for the four "seasons" of political colours it contained — take office under the Flemish liberal Alexander De Croo. Conspicuously, it excluded the N-VA, the largest party, underlining how Belgian coalitions are built on arithmetic and linguistic balance rather than on the plurality winner.

Compared with last time

Compared with 2014, the N-VA slipped but held first place, while the Vlaams Belang's revival and the green surge were the main changes, signalling a hollowing-out of the traditional governing parties on both sides of the language border.

The cordon sanitaire

Despite Vlaams Belang's surge to second place in Flanders, the other Flemish parties maintained the decades-old "cordon sanitaire" — a refusal to govern with or negotiate a coalition including the far right. This convention, unique in its rigidity among European democracies, meant that even a much-strengthened Vlaams Belang remained excluded from power, and it heavily constrained the arithmetic of forming a Flemish-balanced federal majority, contributing to the length of the post-election deadlock.

Turnout

Turnout of 88.38% reflects Belgium's long-standing system of compulsory voting, in force since 1893, which keeps participation among the highest in Europe and makes Belgian results unusually representative of the whole electorate. Although the obligation is rarely enforced with penalties today, the norm of voting remains deeply entrenched, so abstention and differential turnout play far smaller roles in Belgian outcomes than in most other democracies.

Official data source

Federal Public Service Interior (IBZ) election results — verkiezingen.fgov.be.

Compiled and reviewed from official results by ElectioMap. See our data methodology.