General 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 11 April 1954. The dominant Christian Social Party won 95 of the 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 49 of the 106 seats in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. Voter turnout was 93.2%.Nohlen & Stöver, p291 Elections for the nine

provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

councils were also held. The outgoing Catholic government led by

Jean Van Houtte Jean (Jan) Marie Joseph, Baron Van Houtte (17 March 1907 – 23 May 1991) was a Belgian politician who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 1952 to 1954. Born in Ghent, van Houtte held a doctorate in law and lectured at Ghent Univer ...

lost their majority in parliament. The two other main parties, the Socialist and Liberal Party, subsequently formed a rare "purple" government with Achille Van Acker as Prime Minister. Both parties had an anti-clerical agenda and aimed to reverse policies of the Catholic government regarding private schools. This would become known as the

Second School War The Second School War (french: Deuxième guerre scolaire, nl, Tweede schoolstrijd) was a political crisis in Belgium over the issue of religion in education. The conflict lasted between 1950 and 1959 and was ended by a cross-party agreement, know ...

Results

Chamber of Deputies

Senate

References