Regional 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 25 May 2014 to choose representatives for the

Flemish Parliament The Flemish Parliament (Dutch: , formerly called Flemish Council or ''Vlaamse Raad'') constitutes the legislative power in Flanders for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic region and as a cultural communi ...

Walloon Parliament The Parliament of Wallonia (french: Parlement de Wallonie) (Walloon Parliament (french: Parlement wallon) in the decrees) is the legislative body of Wallonia, one of the three self-governing regions of Belgium (the other two being Flanders and t ...

Brussels Parliament The Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) ( French: ''Parlement de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale'', Dutch: ''Parlement van het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gew ...

and the

Parliament of the German-speaking Community The Parliament of the German-speaking Community (german: Parlament der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft or PDG) is the legislative assembly of the German-speaking Community of Belgium located in Eupen. The most important tasks of the Parliament of ...

. These elections were held on the same day as the

2014 European elections Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

as well as the

2014 Belgian federal election Federal elections were held in Belgium on 25 May 2014. All 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium), Chamber of Representatives were elected, whereas the Senate (Belgium), Senate was no longer directly elected following the sixth ...

. The

Parliament of the French Community The Parliament of the French Community (french: Parlement de la Communauté française or PCF) is the legislative assembly of the French Community of Belgium based in the Quartier Royal. It consists of all 75 members of the Walloon Parliament exce ...

is composed of all elected members of the

(except German-speaking members) and 19 of the French-speaking members of the Brussels Parliament.

Flemish Parliament

All 124 members of the

were elected. The five

Flemish Region The Flemish Region ( nl, Vlaams Gewest, ),; german: Flämische Region usually simply referred to as Flanders ( nl, link=no, Vlaanderen ) ; german: link=no, Flandern is one of the three regions of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and t ...

provinces (

West Flanders ) , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of West Flanders.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van West-Vlaanderen.svg , shield_size = , image_map ...

East Flanders , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Province of Belgium , image_flag = Flag of Oost-Vlaanderen.svg , flag_size = , image_shield = Wapen van O ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( nl, Vlaams-Brabant ; french: Brabant flamand ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Haina ...

and

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

) each are a constituency, plus the Brussels-Capital Region where those voting for a Dutch-language party can also vote in the Flemish election. The incumbent

Peeters II Government The Peeters II Government (''Regering-Peeters II'') was the Flemish Government formed following the 2009 Flemish Parliament election. The cabinet consisted of a coalition of the Christian democratic CD&V, the social democratic sp.a and the natio ...

was made up of a coalition of CD&V, N-VA and sp.a.

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. It ...

Kris Peeters Kris Peeters (; born 18 May 1962) is a Belgian politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish who has been serving as vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) since 2021. Earlier in his career, he was Minister-President of Flander ...

(CD&V) consistently polled as one of the most popular politicians in Flanders. He is a candidate to succeed himself as Minister-President. Other parties did not put forward an explicit candidate to be Minister-President. Since the elections coincide with the federal elections, a lot of the campaigning and debates have been about federal matters. Nonetheless, the sixth state reform has transferred a lot of powers from the federal state to the regional level, such as child benefits. Other major election topics include the reform of the secondary

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

, and mobility around Antwerp, in particular the

Oosterweel Link The Oosterweel Link is a construction project first proposed in 1996, intended to complete the R1 Antwerp Ring Road in Antwerp, Belgium. The firm Antwerp Mobility Management Company (name changed to Lantis in 2019), is the Flemish Government c ...

Opinion polls

Main candidates

Results

The winner is by far the N-VA, especially compared to the 2009 regional elections but also to the 2010 federal elections. Groen also gained votes, whereas CD&V, sp.a, Open Vld and especially Vlaams Belang lost votes. LDD did not compete and is no longer in parliament. The Union of Francophones (UF) narrowly reached the 5% election threshold in Flemish Brabant, thereby keeping their only seat. The incumbent government parties N-VA, CD&V and sp.a would have a large majority; it was however not expected that sp.a and N-VA will be together in a coalition. Initially, N-VA and CD&V were negotiating to form a Flemish Government. However, since Open Vld was needed for a federal coalition and they wanted to be in both or neither governments, they joined the Flemish negotiations. On 25 July 2014, the new

Bourgeois Government The Bourgeois Government (''Regering-Bourgeois'') was the Flemish Government formed following the 2014 Flemish Parliament election. The cabinet consisted of a centre-right coalition of the nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the Christian D ...

was sworn in, led by Minister-President

Geert Bourgeois Geert Albert Bourgeois (; born 6 July 1951) is a Belgian politician of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which he founded in 2001, who is currently serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. He previously served as the Minister-Pr ...

(N-VA). Outgoing Minister-President Kris Peeters (CD&V) became minister in the federal

Michel Government The Michel Governments were various Belgian federal governments led by Prime Minister Charles Michel: * Michel I Government (2014–2018) * Michel II Government The Michel II Government was the Federal Government of Belgium, led by Prime Mini ...

. , style="text-align:center;" colspan="11" , ← 2009 • 2014 • 2019 → , - style="text-align:right;" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:400; text-align:left;" colspan="2" rowspan="2", Party ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:200; text-align:left;" rowspan="2", Main ideology ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:200; text-align:left;" rowspan="2", Leader(s) ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;" rowspan="2", Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;" rowspan="2", % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;" rowspan="2", +/– ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50; text-align:center;" colspan="3" , Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;" rowspan="2", +/– , - style="text-align:right;" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;", FLA ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;", BRU ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;", TOT , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

New Flemish Alliance 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 ...

(N-VA) , style="text-align:left;" , centre-right

Flemish nationalism The Flemish Movement ( nl, Vlaamse Beweging) is an umbrella term which encompasses various political groups in the Belgian region of Flanders and, less commonly, in French Flanders. Ideologically, it encompasses groups which have sought to promo ...

, style="text-align:left;" ,

Bart De Wever Bart Albert Liliane De Wever ( born 21 December 1970) is a Belgian politician. Since 2004 De Wever has been the leader of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a political party advocating for the independence of Flanders. He is also a member of the ...

, 1,339,946 , 31.88 , 18.83 , 42 , 1 , , 27 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Christian Democratic & Flemish (CD&V) , style="text-align:left;" ,

Christian democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

, style="text-align:left;" ,

Wouter Beke Wouter Beke (born 9 August 1974) is a Belgium, Belgian politician and a member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish, CD&V. He was reelected as a member of the Belgian Senate in 2007. In 2014 he became a member of the Belgian Federal House of R ...

, 860,694 , 20.48 , 2.37 , 26 , 1 , , 4 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats french: Libéraux et démocrates flamands ouverts , abbreviation = Open Vld , logo = , leader1_title = President , leader1_name = Egbert Lachaert , foundation = 1992 (VLD)2007 (Open Vld) , predecessor = Pa ...

(Open Vld) , style="text-align:left;" ,

Liberalism Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...

, style="text-align:left;" , Gwendolyn Rutten , 594,469 , 14.15 , 0.85 , 17 , 2 , , 2 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Socialist Party – Differently (sp.a) , style="text-align:left;" , Social democracy , style="text-align:left;" , Bruno Tobback , 587,903 , 13.99 , 1.28 , 17 , 1 , , 1 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Groen (political party), Green (Groen) , style="text-align:left;" , Green politics , style="text-align:left;" , Wouter Van Besien , 365,781 , 8.70 , 1.94 , 9 , 1 , , 3 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang) , style="text-align:left;" , far-right

, style="text-align:left;" , Gerolf Annemans , 248,840 , 5.92 , 9.36 , 6 , 0 , , 15 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Union des Francophones, Union of Francophones (UF) , style="text-align:left;" , Political parties of minorities, Francophone minority politics , style="text-align:left;" , Four co-chairmen , 34,741 , 0.83 , 0.32 , 1 , 0 , , 0 , - style="text-align:right;" style="border-top:2px solid gray;" , style="background-color:darkred" , , style="text-align:left;" , Workers' Party of Belgium, Workers' Party+ (PVDA+) , style="text-align:left;" , Socialism/Communism , style="text-align:left;" , Peter Mertens , 106,114 , 2.53 , 1.04 , 0 , 0 , , 0 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" , List Dedecker, Libertarian, Direct, Democratic (LDD) , style="text-align:left;" , Libertarianism , style="text-align:left;" , Jean-Marie Dedecker , , , , 0 , 0 , , 8 , - style="text-align:right;" , style="width:10px;background-color:white;text-align:center;" , , style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 , Others (parties and candidates that received less than 1% of the vote and no seats) , 63,974 , , , 0 , 0 , , , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4" , Valid votes , 4,202,462 , 95.03 , colspan="5" rowspan="2" , , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4" , Blank and invalid votes , 219,574 , 4.97 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4" , Totals , 4,422,036 , 100.00 , — , 118 , 6 , , 0 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="4" , Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout , 4,771,657 , 92.67 , , colspan="4" , , - , style="text-align:left;" colspan="11" , Source: ''Notes:''
1) FLA = Flanders, BRU = Brussels (Capital Region), TOT = total

In detail

The candidate receiving the most preference votes was Liesbeth Homans (N-VA) in Antwerp, with 159,965 votes, ahead of Kris Peeters (CD&V). The highest percentage of votes in a municipality (apart from the French-speaking list in the Brussels Periphery) was achieved by N-VA in Schilde (near Antwerp city) with 51,27% of the votes. Vlaams Parlement 2014

Walloon Parliament

All 75 members of the Walloon Parliament, Walloon Regional Parliament were elected. The elections took place in 13 electoral districts. The incumbent Demotte II Government, led by Rudy Demotte, is a coalition of the Socialist Party (PS), the Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH) and Ecolo. The Reformist Movement (MR) was the only opposition party.

Opinion polls

Results

PS, cdH, Ecolo lost votes, whereas MR gained votes and PTB-GO! as well as Parti Populaire are new parties in parliament. Within two weeks following the elections, the Socialist Party and the Humanist Democratic Centre started negotiations for a new government. , style="text-align:center;" colspan="9" , ← 2009 • 2014 • 2019 → , - style="text-align:right;" ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:400; text-align:left;" colspan="2", National party ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:200; text-align:left;", Main ideology ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:200; text-align:left;", Leader(s) ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;", Votes ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;", % ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;", +/– ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;", Seats ! style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:50;", +/– , - , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Socialist Party (francophone Belgium), Socialist Party (PS) , style="text-align:left;" , Social democracy , style="text-align:left;" , Paul Magnette , 626,473 , 30.96 , 1.81 , , 1 , - , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Mouvement Réformateur, Reformist Movement (MR) , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:left;" , Louis Michel , 540,438 , 26.71 , 3.30 , , 6 , - , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Humanist Democratic Centre (CDH) , style="text-align:left;" ,

, style="text-align:left;" , Benoît Lutgen , 305,281 , 15.09 , 1.05 , , 0 , - , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Ecolo (ECOLO) , style="text-align:left;" , Green politics , style="text-align:left;" , Olivier Deleuze & Emily Hoyos , 172,682 , 8.53 , 10.00 , , 10 , - , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Workers' Party of Belgium, Workers' Party (PTB–GO!) , style="text-align:left;" , Socialism , style="text-align:left;" , Peter Mertens , 117.228 , 5.79 , 4.55 , , 2 , - , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , People's Party (Belgium), People's Party (PP) , style="text-align:left;" , Conservative liberalism , style="text-align:left;" , Mischaël Modrikamen , 98,840 , 4.89 , ''new'' , , 1 , - style="border-top:2px solid gray;" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Fédéralistes Démocrates Francophones, Francophone Democratic Federalists (FDF) , style="text-align:left;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Olivier Maingain , 51,543 , 2.55 , ''new'' , , 0 , - , , style="text-align:left;" colspan=3 , Others (parties and candidates that received less than 1% of the vote and no seats) , , , — , , — , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4", Valid votes , , , colspan="3" rowspan="2" , , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4", Blank and invalid votes , , , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , style="text-align:right;" colspan="4", Totals , , 100.00 , — , 75 , 0 , - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" , colspan="4", Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout , , , , colspan="2",

In detail

Brussels Parliament

All 89 members of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region were elected. There are separate Dutch-language party lists and French-language party lists. Those voting for a Dutch-language party can also cast a vote for the Flemish Parliament election.

Opinion polls

Results

The winner is FDF, which became the third largest French-speaking party. MR, PS, Ecolo and cdH lost votes. The candidates receiving the most preference votes were Didier Gosuin (FDF, 22,906), Vincent De Wolf (MR, 19,919), Joëlle Milquet (cdH, 19,416), Charles Picqué (PS, 16,859) and Rudi Vervoort (PS, 16,742). The candidate receiving the most preference votes was Guy Vanhengel (Open Vld, 7,375), significantly above the second one, Els Ampe (Open Vld, 2,883).

German-speaking Community Parliament

All 25 members of the

were elected. The incumbent Government of the German-speaking Community, government, led by Karl-Heinz Lambertz (SP), is a coalition of the Parti Socialiste (Belgium), Socialist Party (SP), the liberal Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt, Party for Freedom and Progress (PFF) and the regionalist ProDG (Belgium), ProDG. Only a few days after the elections, these parties agreed to continue their coalition government, but with Oliver Paasch (ProDG) as Minister-President since his party became bigger than SP.

References

External links

Elections 2014
- Federal Public Service Home Affairs
2014 Flemish Parliament elections
- Flemish Internal Administration Agency {{Belgian elections Regional elections in Belgium, 2014 2014 elections in Belgium May 2014 events in Europe