Federal elections were held in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

on 18 May 2003, the first under a new electoral code. One of the novelties was an electoral threshold of 5%, which has cost many seats to the

N-VA The New Flemish Alliance ( nl, Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA) is a Flemish nationalist and conservative political party in Belgium. The party was founded in 2001 by the right-leaning fraction of the centrist-nationalist People's Union (VU). T ...

and the

Green parties A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

, Ecolo and

Agalev Groen (English: Green; nl, Groen, ), founded as Agalev (see Name below), is a green Flemish political party in Belgium. Its French-speaking equivalent is Ecolo; the two parties maintain close relations with each other. Party history Before ...

. The Belgian Socialists recovered well; the liberal and nationalist parties increased their vote as well. The Flemish Greens lost all their seats. The Greens were attacked on two fronts: some, including their coalition partners, accused them of being too fundamentalist, while others said that they had betrayed their ideals. The resignation of a Walloon green minister (Isabelle Durant), one week before the elections, probably didn't do them much good either. Although it was predicted in some opinion polls, the gains of the

Front National The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as far-right: Academic: ...

were surprising, considering that it seldom appeared in the media. The most important trend was the recovery of the Flemish social-democrats, led by the popular (some would say populist)

Steve Stevaert Steve Stevaert (; born Robert Stevaert ; 12 April 1954 – 2 April 2015) was a Belgian politician of the Flemish Socialist Party: the SP.A. Biography Stevaert was born on 12 April 1954 in Rijkhoven in Belgium. After his studies at the "Hoger Ri ...

. The fact that Elio Di Rupo was learning Dutch caused rumours that he hoped to become

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

, if the social-democrats would turn out to be the largest political family. Themes that probably influenced the election results in some way or another were the government's opposition to the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

, the controversy around the nuisance around the airport of Zaventem, the controversy surrounding the banning of tobacco publicity, and unemployment, but a general dominating theme was lacking.

Results

Chamber of Representatives

Senate

Further reading