2019 European Parliament election in Belgium

2019 European Parliament election in Belgium

26 May 2019
All 21 Belgian seats to the European Parliament
Turnout	88.47%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Geert Bourgeois Gerolf Annemans Guy Verhofstadt Party N-VA Vlaams Belang Open Vld Alliance ECR ID ALDE Last election 4 seats, 16.79% 1 seat, 4.26% 3 seats, 12.84% Seats won 3 3 2 Seat change 1 2 1 Popular vote 954,048 811,169 678,051 Percentage 14.17% 12.05% 10.07% Swing 2.62% 7.79% 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 1 0 1 Popular vote 655,812 617,651 566,274 Percentage 9.74% 9.17% 8.42% Swing 1.03% 3.39% 4.91%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Petra De Sutter Philippe Lamberts Olivier Chastel Party Groen Ecolo MR Alliance European Greens European Greens ALDE Last election 1 seat, 6.69% 1 seat, 4.26% 3 seats, 9.88% Seats won 1 2 2 Seat change 0 1 1 Popular vote 525,908 492,330 475,338 Percentage 7.81% 7.31% 7.06% Swing 1.13% 2.95% 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

  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

Party		Votes	%	Seats
French-speaking electoral college
	Socialist Party	651,157	26.69	2
	Ecolo	485,655	19.91	2
	Reformist Movement	470,654	19.29	2
	Workers' Party of Belgium	355,883	14.59	1
	Humanist Democratic Centre	218,078	8.94	1
	DéFI	144,555	5.92	0
	People's Party	113,793	4.66	0
Total		2,439,775	100.00	8
Dutch-speaking electoral college
	New Flemish Alliance	954,048	22.44	3
	Vlaams Belang	811,169	19.08	3
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats	678,051	15.95	2
	Christian Democratic and Flemish	617,651	14.53	2
	Green	525,908	12.37	1
	Socialist Party Differently	434,002	10.21	1
	Workers' Party of Belgium	210,391	4.95	0
	Volt Belgium	20,385	0.48	0
Total		4,251,605	100.00	12
German-speaking electoral college
	Christian Social Party	14,247	34.94	1
	Ecolo	6,675	16.37	0
	ProDG	5,360	13.14	0
	Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt–Reformist Movement	4,684	11.49	0
	Socialist Party	4,655	11.42	0
	Vivant	4,550	11.16	0
	DierAnimal	606	1.49	0
Total		40,777	100.00	1
Valid votes		6,732,157	93.68
Invalid/blank votes		454,520	6.32
Total votes		7,186,677	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		8,122,985	88.47
Source: Belgian Elections

Elected members

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

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

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

• Elections 2019 - Federal Public Service Interior

References

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.