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 26 March 1961. The result was a victory for the Christian Social Party, which won 96 of the 212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 47 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 92.3%.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. Prior to the elections, the centre-right government of the Christian Social and Liberal Party led by

Gaston Eyskens Gaston François Marie, viscount Eyskens (1 April 1905 – 3 January 1988) was a Christian democratic politician and prime minister of Belgium. He was also an economist and member of the Belgian Christian Social Party (CVP-PSC). He served t ...

pushed through austerity measures with a law known as the ''Eenheidswet'' or ''Loi Unique'', despite heavy strikes in the preceding weeks, especially in Wallonia. After the elections, the Christian Democrats formed a new government with the Socialist Party instead of the Liberal Party, with Théo Lefèvre as Prime Minister.

Results

Chamber of Deputies

Senate

References