2024 Belgian federal election

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2024 Belgian federal election
Belgium
← 2019 9 June 2024

All 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives
76 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Current seats
N-VA Bart De Wever 24
PS Paul Magnette 19
VB Tom Van Grieken 18
MR Georges-Louis Bouchez 14
Ecolo R. Maouane & J.-M. Nollet [fr] 13
CD&V Sammy Mahdi 12
PVDA-PTB Raoul Hedebouw 12
Open Vld Tom Ongena 12
Vooruit Melissa Depraetere 9
Groen N. Naji & J. Vaneeckhout 8
LE Maxime Prévot 5
DéFI François De Smet [fr] 2
Incumbent Prime Minister
Alexander De Croo
Open Vld

Federal elections are scheduled to be held in Belgium on 9 June 2024.[1] The 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives will be elected for a five-year term. European and regional elections are scheduled to take place on the same day.[2]

Electoral system[edit]

The 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were 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.

Representatives elected from the five Flemish Region provinces, Antwerp (24), East Flanders (20), Flemish Brabant (15), Limburg (12) and West Flanders (16), automatically belonged to the Dutch-speaking language group in parliament, whereas those elected from the five provinces of Wallonia, Hainaut (17), Liège (14), Luxembourg (4), Namur (7) and Walloon Brabant (5), formed the French-speaking language group. The 16 members elected in Brussels can choose to join either group. Apportionment of seats is done every ten years in accordance with population data, last by royal order in 2022, when Brussels and Namur each gained a seat while Hainaut and Liège lost a seat.[3]

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.

All Belgian citizens aged 16 or over are obligated to participate in the election. Non-Belgian citizens residing in Belgium (regardless of EU citizenship) cannot vote, whereas Belgian citizens living abroad can register to vote.

Voting is done electronically in all 19 Brussels and 9 German-speaking municipalities as well as in 159 Flemish municipalities. Voting is done by paper ballot in 141 Flemish municipalities as well as in all 253 (non-German-speaking) Walloon municipalities.

Timetable[edit]

9 February Start of the "waiting period" (sperperiode) running until the day of the election, during which political propaganda and expenses are strictly regulated
1 April The electoral roll is fixed by municipal authorities
13 April Deadline for submitting candidate lists
TBD The Parliament is formally dissolved
25 May Final day for the official announcement of the election and the convocation letter to voters
5 June Polling day for Belgians residing abroad in the embassies and consular posts
9 June Polling day (from 8am until 2pm, or until 4pm where voting is done electronically)
TBD Constitutive session of the newly elected Chamber of Representatives

Parties and leaders[edit]

Parties running[edit]

The following parties running have seats in the Chamber of Representatives.

Party Ideology Political position Leader 2019 result Status
N-VA Conservatism Flemish nationalism Centre-right to right-wing Bart De Wever
25 / 150
Opposition
PS Social democracy Centre-left Paul Magnette
20 / 150
Governing coalition
Vlaams Belang Right-wing populism Flemish nationalism Right-wing to far-right Tom Van Grieken
18 / 150
Opposition
Reformist Movement Liberalism Centre-right Georges-Louis Bouchez
14 / 150
Governing coalition
Ecolo Green politics Centre-left Rajae Maouane and Jean-Marc Nollet [fr]
13 / 150
Governing coalition
Christian Democratic and Flemish Christian democracy Centre to centre-right Sammy Mahdi
12 / 150
Governing coalition
Workers' Party of Belgium Socialism Left-wing to far-left Raoul Hedebouw
12 / 150
Opposition
Open Vld Liberalism Centre-right Tom Ongena
12 / 150
Governing coalition
Vooruit Social democracy Centre-left Melissa Depraetere
9 / 150
Governing coalition
Groen Green politics Centre-left Nadia Naji and Jeremie Vaneeckhout
8 / 150
Governing coalition
Les Engagés Social liberalism Centre Maxime Prévot
5 / 150
Opposition
DéFI Regionalism and social liberalism Centre to centre-right François De Smet [fr]
2 / 150
Opposition

Other political parties[edit]

  • Blanco Party: single-issue politics - Federal constituencies
  • Belgische Unie – Union Belge: royalism - Federal constituencies
  • L'Unie: unitarism - Federal constituencies
  • Alternatief 2024 - Flemish constituencies
  • BoerBurgerBelangen: agrarianism - Flemish constituencies
  • Partij vor de Bomen: tree interests - Flemish constituencies
  • DierAnimal: animal welfare - Flemish constituencies
  • Common Sense: libertarianism, agrarianism - Flemish constituencies
  • L99 - Flemish constituencies
  • Volt: social liberalism - Flemish constituencies
  • VoorU: pro-Europeanism - Flemish constituencies
  • Chez Nous: right-wing populism - Walloon constituencies
  • Citizen Empowerment: anti-establishment - Walloon constituencies
  • Team Fouad Ahidar: minority interests - Brussels constituencies
  • Plan B: regionalism, liberalism - Brussels constituencies
  • Transparene-Transparency: anti-establishment - Brussels constituencies
  • Viva Palestina: pro-Palestine - Brussels constituencies
  • Agora: participatory democracy - French-speaking constituencies
  • Citizens' Collective: social-liberalism - French-speaking constituencies
  • Workers' Struggle: trotskyism - French-speaking constituencies
  • Anticapitalists: trotskyism - French-speaking European constituencies
  • Huppertz+Co: christian democracy - German-speaking constituencies
  • Liste24.dg - German-speaking constituencies

Lead candidates[edit]

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

Dutch-speaking constituencies[edit]

Party  Antwerp  East Flanders  Flemish Brabant  Limburg  West Flanders  Brussels
CD&V[4] Annelies Verlinden Vincent Van Peteghem Sammy Mahdi Nawal Farih [nl] Nathalie Muylle [nl] Together with Les Engagés
Groen[4] Meyrem Almaci Petra De Sutter Dieter Van Besien [nl] Dirk Opsteyn Matti Vandemaele Together with Ecolo
N-VA[4] Bart De Wever Anneleen Van Bossuyt Theo Francken Steven Vandeput Jean-Marie Dedecker
Open Vld[4] Paul Van Tigchelt Alexander De Croo Irina De Knop [nl] Steven Coenegrachts [nl] Vincent Van Quickenborne Together with MR
PVDA[4] Peter Mertens Robin Tonniau [nl] Kemal Bilmez Kim De Witte Natalie Eggermont [nl] Together with PTB
Vlaams Belang[4] Lode Vereeck [nl] Barbara Pas Britt Huybrechts Annick Ponthier Wouter Vermeersch
Vooruit[4] Jinnih Beels [nl] Joris Vandenbroucke [nl] Frank Vandenbroucke Funda Oru [nl] Melissa Depraetere Together with PS
Volt[5] Jasper Coosemans Emeric Massaut
VoorU[4] Frank Wouters Michael Verstraeten Els Ampe [nl] Dirk Vijnck [nl] Ivan Sabbe [nl] Rachid El Hajui
l'Unie Alexandra Bernaert Charles de Groot

French-speaking constituencies[edit]

Hainaut will interestingly feature three party chairmen (Bouchez for MR, Magnette for PS and Nollet for Ecolo) as well as popular ex-MR ex-minister Crucke for Les Engagés. In Namur, three federal deputy prime ministers will run against each other (Dermagne for PS, Gilkinet for Ecolo and Clarinval for MR).[6] The right-wing Flemish nationalist N-VA party is also fielding candidates in Wallonia for the first time.[7]

Party  Hainaut  Liège  Luxembourg  Namur  Walloon Brabant  Brussels
DéFI [citation needed] Mikhaël Jacquemain Freddy Debarsy Julien Lemoine Pierre Pinte François De Smet [fr]
Ecolo [citation needed] Jean-Marc Nollet [fr] Sarah Schlitz Olivier Vajda [fr] Georges Gilkinet Simon Moutquin [fr] Zakia Khattabi
Les Engagés [citation needed] Jean-Luc Crucke [fr] Vanessa Matz Benoît Lutgen Maxime Prévot Yves Coppieters Elisabeth Degryse
MR [citation needed] Georges-Louis Bouchez Pierre-Yves Jeholet [fr] Benoît Piedboeuf [fr] David Clarinval Florence Reuter Sophie Wilmès
PS [citation needed] Paul Magnette Frédéric Daerden Philippe Courard [fr] Pierre-Yves Dermagne Dimitri Legasse [fr] Caroline Désir [fr]
PTB [citation needed] Sofie Merckx [fr] Raoul Hedebouw Farah Jacquet Amaury Laridon Nabil Boukili [fr]
N-VA[8] Michel De Wolf Evelien Barbieux Anne Laure Mouligneaux Laurence Genot Drieu Godefridi
Chez Nous Jérôme Munier Noa Pozzi Nicolas Dielman Eric Doucet Michaël Lefèvere
l'Unie Andrew Scrivener Charles de Groot

Retiring incumbents[edit]

The following members of the federal parliament are not standing for election in June 2024.

Opinion polls[edit]

Flanders[edit]

Wallonia[edit]

Brussels[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Quand auront lieu les prochaines elections". IBZ Elections. Retrieved 2023-05-07.
  2. ^ Belga (17 May 2023). "Kogel is door de kerk: op zondag 9 juni 2024 trekken we naar de stembus". vrtnws.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 26 May 2023.
  3. ^ "Brussel krijgt extra volksvertegenwoordiger bij verkiezingen 2024". BRUZZ. 23 November 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Definitieve afsluiting van de kandidatenlijsten". Ministry of the Interior (in Dutch). Retrieved 2024-04-19.
  5. ^ "Candidates 2024". Volt België. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  6. ^ "Ces combats qui vont animer les élections du 9 juin". L'Echo. 13 January 2024.
  7. ^ Clapson, Colin (2023-12-04). "N-VA to stand in Wallonia: "Belgium is not a democracy"". vrtnws.be. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  8. ^ "EXCLUSIEF. N-VA wil in Wallonië opkomen". Het Laatste Nieuws. 2023-12-02. Retrieved 2023-12-05.
  9. ^ a b c "Deze politici kondigden al aan dat ze niet terugkeren in het Parlement". De Standaard. 21 April 2023.
  10. ^ "Kristof Calvo (Groen) wordt lijstduwer van zusterpartij Ecolo in Henegouwen: "Ik ambieer geen zetel"". VRT NWS. 22 January 2024.