2019 European Parliament election in Belgium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2019 European Parliament election in Belgium
← 2014 26 May 2019 2024 →
All 21 Belgian seats to the European Parliament
Turnout88.47%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Geert Bourgeois Gerolf Annemans Guy Verhofstadt
Party N-VA VB Open Vld
Alliance ECR EAPN ALDE
Last election 4 seats, 16.79% 1 seat, 4.26% 3 seats, 12.84%
Seats won 3 3 2
Seat change Decrease 1 Increase 2 Decrease 1
Popular vote 954,048 811,169 678,051
Percentage 14.17% 12.05% 10.07%
Swing Decrease 2.62% Increase 7.79% Decrease 2.77%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Paul Magnette Kris Peeters Marc Botenga
Party PS CD&V PVDA-PTB
Alliance PES EPP GUE/NGL
Last election 3 seats, 10.68% 2 seats, 12.57% 0 seats, 3.51%
Seats won 2 2 1
Seat change Decrease 1 Steady 0 Increase 1
Popular vote 655,812 617,651 566,274
Percentage 9.74% 9.17% 8.42%
Swing Decrease 1.03% Decrease 3.39% Increase 4.91%
  Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party
 
Leader Petra De Sutter Philippe Lamberts Olivier Chastel
Party Groen Ecolo MR
Alliance Green Green ALDE
Last election 1 seat, 6.69% 1 seat, 4.26% 3 seats, 9.88%
Seats won 1 2 2
Seat change Steady 0 Increase 1 Decrease 1
Popular vote 525,908 492,330 475,338
Percentage 7.81% 7.31% 7.06%
Swing Increase 1.13% Increase 2.95% Decrease 2.92%

An election was held on 26 May 2019 in the three Belgian constituencies (the Dutch-speaking electoral college, the French-speaking electoral college and the German-speaking electoral college) to elect the Belgian delegation to the European Parliament. It was part of the 2019 European Parliament election.

A royal order of 15 June 2018 fixed the date of the European Parliament election in Belgium, following an agreement at European level.[1] Per the Belgian Constitution, the Belgian regional elections, and additionally the Belgian federal election because no snap election occurred, were automatically held on the same day.

Marianne Thyssen, who was re-elected Member of the European Parliament in 2014 as lijsttrekker for CD&V and who subsequently became European Commissioner, announced in July 2018 that she would quit politics in 2019.[2]

Electoral system[edit]

  Dutch-speaking electoral college (12 MEPs)
  French-speaking electoral college (8 MEPs)
  German-speaking electoral college (1 MEP)

As the reapportionment after Brexit did not impact the number of seats allocated to Belgium, 21 MEPs were elected in Belgium, as in the 2014 election. One of them is by law allocated to the German-speaking electoral college and the remaining ones are allocated to the Dutch-speaking and to the French-speaking electoral college in accordance with a population formula, giving them respectively twelve and eight seats, as in 2014.[3]

Voters could only vote on the lists depending on the language area they live in. This means that in the bilingual arrondissement of Brussels-Capital, voters could choose whether to vote for the Dutch-speaking or for the French-speaking electoral college. There was an exception to this rule for the six municipalities with language facilities in the Brussels Periphery, whose inhabitants could also opt to vote for French-speaking lists despite being in the Dutch language area.

Seats were allocated according to the D'Hondt method in each of the three electoral colleges; however, the German-speaking electoral college de facto used a first-past-the-post system, since it elected only one MEP. The electoral threshold was 5%, which was based on the vote share per electoral college rather than nationally.

All Belgian citizens aged 18 or over and residing in Belgium were obligated to participate in the election.

Other EU citizens residing in Belgium as well as Belgians living in another EU member state had the right to vote on Belgian lists in European Parliament elections. The law of 17 November 2016 extended this right to Belgians living in a non-EU member state, which was already possible for federal elections.

Results[edit]

PartyVotes%Seats
French-speaking electoral college
Socialist Party651,15726.692
Ecolo485,65519.912
Reformist Movement470,65419.292
Workers' Party of Belgium355,88314.591
Humanist Democratic Centre218,0788.941
DéFI144,5555.920
People's Party113,7934.660
Total2,439,775100.008
Dutch-speaking electoral college
New Flemish Alliance954,04822.443
Vlaams Belang811,16919.083
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats678,05115.952
Christian Democratic and Flemish617,65114.532
Green525,90812.371
Socialist Party Differently434,00210.211
Workers' Party of Belgium210,3914.950
Volt Belgium20,3850.480
Total4,251,605100.0012
German-speaking electoral college
Christian Social Party14,24734.941
Ecolo6,67516.370
ProDG5,36013.140
Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt–Reformist Movement4,68411.490
Socialist Party4,65511.420
Vivant4,55011.160
DierAnimal6061.490
Total40,777100.001
Valid votes6,732,15793.68
Invalid/blank votes454,5206.32
Total votes7,186,677100.00
Registered voters/turnout8,122,98588.47
Source: Belgian Elections

Elected members[edit]

Party Elected members
Dutch-speaking electoral college (12)
New Flemish Alliance (3) Geert Bourgeois, Assita Kanko, Johan Van Overtveldt
Vlaams Belang (3) Gerolf Annemans, Filip De Man, Tom Vandendriessche[4]
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (2) Guy Verhofstadt, Hilde Vautmans
Christian Democratic & Flemish (2) Kris Peeters, Cindy Franssen
Groen (1) Petra De Sutter
Socialist Party Differently (1) Kathleen Van Brempt
French-speaking electoral college (8)
Socialist Party (2) Marie Arena, Marc Tarabella[5]
Ecolo (2) Philippe Lamberts, Saskia Bricmont
Reformist Movement (2) Olivier Chastel, Frédérique Ries
Workers' Party of Belgium (1) Marc Botenga
Humanist Democratic Centre (1) Benoît Lutgen
German-speaking electoral college (1)
Christian Social Party (1) Pascal Arimont

Groups[edit]

From 2019 European Parliament election#Groups

Alliance Seats
European People's Party (EPP) 4
Renew Europe (RE) 4
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) 3
Identity and Democracy (ID) 3
European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) 3
Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) 3
European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) 1
Non-Inscrits 0

Outgoing delegation[edit]

Belgian parties in the European Parliament in the eighth legislature (2014–2019)
Group 21 Dutch-speaking electoral college 12 French-speaking electoral college 8 German-speaking electoral college 1
ALDE 6 Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) 3 Reformist Movement (MR) 3
ECR 4 New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) 4
S&D 4 Socialist Party Differently (sp.a) 1 Socialist Party (PS) 3
EPP 4 Christian Democratic & Flemish (CD&V) 2 Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH) 1 Christian Social Party (CSP) 1
Greens-EFA 2 Groen 1 Ecolo 1
ENF 1 Vlaams Belang (VB) 1

External links[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ 15 juni 2018. - Koninklijk besluit tot vastlegging van de datum van de verkiezing van het Europese Parlement
  2. ^ "Marianne Thyssen stapt volgend jaar uit de politiek: "Er is ook een leven ernaast"". 12 July 2018.
  3. ^ 30 JULI 2018. - Koninklijk besluit tot vaststelling van het aantal zetels dat toegekend wordt aan het Nederlandse kiescollege en het Franse kiescollege voor de verkiezing van het Europees Parlement
  4. ^ Patsy Vatlet resigned from her seat before inauguration.
  5. ^ Paul Magnette resigned from his seat before inauguration.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2019_European_Parliament_election_in_Belgium&oldid=1188750236"