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]

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.

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:

2019 Flemish parliamentary election

← 2014 26 May 2019 (2019-05-26) 2024 →
← outgoing members
All 124 seats in the Flemish Parliament 63 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	92.2%
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 8 17 8 Popular vote 1,052,252 783,977 652,766 Percentage 24.8% 18.5% 15.4% Swing 7.1 pp 12.6 pp 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 3 5 4 Popular vote 556,630 438,589 428,696 Percentage 13.1% 10.3% 10.1% Swing 1.1 pp 3.7 pp 1.4 pp
Flemish Government before election Bourgeois Government N-VA–CD&V–Open Vld coalition Elected Flemish Government Jambon Government N-VA-CD&V-Open Vld coalition

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.

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

• Minister Jo Vandeurzen (CD&V, Limburg)^[4]
• Rob Beenders (sp.a, Limburg)^[5]
• Yamila Idrissi (sp.a, Brussels)^[6]
• Grete Remen (N-VA, Limburg)^[7]
• Johan Verstreken (CD&V, West Flanders)^[8]

← Summary of the results of the 26 May 2019 Belgian election to the Flemish Parliament

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	New Flemish Alliance	1,052,252	24.83	−7.06	35	−8
	Flemish Interest	783,977	18.50	+12.58	23	+17
	Christian Democratic and Flemish	652,766	15.40	−5.08	19	−8
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	556,630	13.13	−1.01	16	−3
	Socialist Party Differently[a]	438,589	10.35	−3.64	13	−5
	Groen	428,696	10.11	+1.41	14	+4
	Workers' Party of Belgium	225,593	5.32	+2.80	4	+4
	DierAnimal	36,944	0.87	New	0	New
	Union des Francophones	28,804	0.68	−0.15	0	–1
	Pirate Party	9,148	0.22	−0.40	0	±0
	PRO	5,685	0.13	New	0	New
	D-SA	4,569	0.11	New	0	New
	Be.One	4,064	0.10	New	0	New
	PV&S	2,813	0.07	New	0	New
	Genoeg vr iedereen	2,650	0.06	New	0	New
	Burgerlijst	2,033	0.05	New	0	New
	RP	1,659	0.04	New	0	New
	De Coöperatie	1,402	0.03	New	0	New
Total		4,238,274	100.00	–	124	–
Valid votes		4,238,274	95.05
Invalid/blank votes		220,790	4.95
Total votes		4,459,064	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		4,838,566	92.16
Source: IBZ

2019 Walloon parliamentary election

← 2014 26 May 2019 (2019-05-26) 2024 →
All 75 seats in the Walloon Parliament 38 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	93.4%
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 7 5 8 Popular vote 532,422 435,878 294,631 Percentage 26.2% 21.4% 14.5% Swing 4.7 pp 5.3 pp 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 8 3 Popular vote 278,343 223,775 Percentage 13.7% 11.0% Swing 7.9 pp 4.2 pp
Walloon Government before election Borsus Government [fr] MR–cdH coalition Elected Walloon Government Di Rupo III Government [fr] PS–MR–Ecolo 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]

← Summary of the results of the 26 May 2019 Walloon regional election

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	Socialist Party	532,422	26.17	−4.73	23	−7
	Reformist Movement	435,878	21.42	−5.26	20	−5
	Ecolo	294,631	14.48	+5.86	12	+8
	Workers' Party of Belgium	278,343	13.68	+7.92	10	+8
	Humanist Democratic Centre	223,775	11.00	−4.17	10	−3
	Democratic, Federalist, Independent	84,219	4.14	+1.61	0	±0
	People's Party	74,622	3.67	+1.20	0	−1
	Destexhe Lists	30,878	1.52	New	0	New
	Citizen Collective	26,673	1.31	New	0	New
	DierAnimal	18,417	0.91	−1.22	0	±0
	Nation	9,649	0.47	−0.06	0	±0
	Wallonie Unbowed	8,155	0.40	New	0	New
	ACT	7,146	0.35	New	0	New
	Tomorrow	3,407	0.17	−1.22	0	±0
	The Right	4,443	0.22	−1.22	0	±0
	Communist Party of Belgium	944	0.05	New	0	New
	Referendum	621	0.03	−0.06	0	±0
	Turquoise	590	0.03	New	0	New
Total		2,034,813	100.00	–	75	–
Valid votes		2,034,813	91.64
Invalid/blank votes		185,630	8.36
Total votes		2,220,443	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,563,033	86.63
Source: IBZ

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.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
French language group
	Socialist Party	85,530	22.03	17	-4
	Ecolo	74,246	19.12	15	+7
	Reformist Movement	65,502	16.87	13	-5
	Francophone Democratic Federalists	53,638	13.81	10	-2
	Workers' Party of Belgium	52,297	13.47	10	+4
	Humanist Democratic Centre	29,436	7.58	6	-3
	Destexhe Lists	10,052	2.59	–	–
	People's Party	6,605	1.70	–	–
	DierAnimal	5,113	1.32	1	+1
	Citizen Collective	2,029	0.52	–	–
	act-SALEM	1,496	0.39	–	–
	Plan B	1,115	0.29	–	–
	Hé	697	0.18	–	–
	be@eu	522	0.13	–	–
Total		388,278	100.00	72	–
Dutch language group
	Green	14,425	20.61	4	+1
	New Flemish Alliance	12,578	17.97	3	–
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	11,051	15.79	3	-2
	one.brussels-sp.a	10,540	15.06	3	–
	Flemish Interest	5,838	8.34	1	–
	Christian Democratic and Flemish	5,231	7.47	1	-1
	Agora	3,629	5.18	1	+1
	Be.One	3,021	4.32	–	–
	Workers' Party of Belgium	2,992	4.27	1	+1
	DierAnimal	691	0.99	–	–
Total		69,996	100.00	17	–
Valid votes		451,570	93.26
Invalid/blank votes		32,643	6.74
Total votes		484,213	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		588,203	82.32
Source: IBZ

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).

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	ProDG	9,146	23.33	1.13	6	–
	Christian Social Party	9,069	23.14	1.72	6	1
	Socialist Party	5,820	14.85	1.23	4	–
	Vivant	5,807	14.81	4.20	3	1
	Ecolo	4,902	12.51	2.96	3	1
	Party for Freedom and Progress	4,454	11.36	4.18	3	1
Total		39,198	100.00	–	25	–
Valid votes		39,198	92.22
Invalid/blank votes		3,305	7.78
Total votes		42,503	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		49,441	85.97
Source: IBZ

• Elections 2019 - Federal Public Service Interior