Regional elections were held in Belgium 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 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 provinces ( West Flanders, East Flanders,

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) 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

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 Child benefit or children's allowance is a social security payment which is distributed to the parents or guardians of children, teenagers and in some cases, young adults. A number of countries operate different versions of the program. In most co ...

. Other major election topics include the reform of the secondary education, 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 co ...

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 (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 (N-VA) , style="text-align:left;" , centre-right Flemish nationalism , style="text-align:left;" , Bart De Wever , 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 (Open Vld) , style="text-align:left;" , Liberalism , 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 Vooruit (Dutch for Forward, ) is a Flemish social democratic political party in Belgium. The party was known as the Flemish Socialist Party (1978–2001: ''Socialistische Partij'', SP; 2001–2021: ''Socialistische Partij Anders'', SP.A) until ...

(sp.a) , style="text-align:left;" , Social democracy , style="text-align:left;" ,

Bruno Tobback Bruno Tobback (born 22 August 1969) was the president of the Flemish socialist party Different Socialist Party (SP.A) from 2011 to 2015. He was Minister of Environment and Pensions in the Belgian federal government from 2004 until 2007. He i ...

, 587,903 , 13.99 , 1.28 , 17 , 1 , , 1 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Green (Groen) , style="text-align:left;" , Green politics , style="text-align:left;" ,

Wouter Van Besien Wouter Van Besien (born 1972) is a Belgian politician. From 25 October 2009 until 15 November 2014, he was the chairman of the ecologist party Groen. Van Besien got a master's degree in Sociology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and obtai ...

, 365,781 , 8.70 , 1.94 , 9 , 1 , , 3 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Flemish Interest , ideology = , predecessor = Vlaams Blok , position = , europarl = Identity and Democracy , european = Identity and Democracy Party , youth_wing = Vlaams Belang Jongeren , colours = , ...

(Vlaams Belang) , style="text-align:left;" , far-right Flemish nationalism , style="text-align:left;" ,

Gerolf Annemans Gerolf Emma Jozef Annemans (born 8 November 1958) is a Belgian lawyer, journalist and politician of the Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang (VB) and formerly of its predecessor, the Vlaams Blok. He has been a member of the European Parliame ...

, 248,840 , 5.92 , 9.36 , 6 , 0 , , 15 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" , Union of Francophones (UF) , style="text-align:left;" , 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+ (PVDA+) , style="text-align:left;" , Socialism/ Communism , style="text-align:left;" ,

Peter Mertens Peter Mertens (born 17 December 1969) is a Belgian politician who has led the Workers' Party of Belgium from 2008 to 2021. He has served as a member of the Chamber of Representatives since 2019, and as a municipal councilor in Antwerp since 2013 ...

, 106,114 , 2.53 , 1.04 , 0 , 0 , , 0 , - style="text-align:right;" , , style="text-align:left;" ,

Libertarian, Direct, Democratic Libertarian, Direct, Democratic ( nl, Libertair, Direct, Democratisch; LDD) is a conservative-liberal, libertarian, right-wing populist Flemish political party in Belgium. The party surprised commentators by winning five seats in the Chamber and ...

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

Libertarianism Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

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

Jean-Marie Dedecker Jean-Marie Louis Dedecker (born 13 June 1952) is a Belgian politician. In 1999 and 2003, Dedecker was directly elected to the Belgian Senate for the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD). In 2004 Dedecker ran for a seat in the Flemish Parliament ...

, , , , 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 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 Humanist Democratic Centre (french: Centre Démocrate Humaniste, CDH) was a Christian democratic and centrist French-speaking political party in Belgium. The party originated in the split in 1972 of the unitary Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) w ...

(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 (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;" , Reformist Movement (MR) , style="text-align:left;" , Liberalism , style="text-align:left;" , Louis Michel , 540,438 , 26.71 , 3.30 , , 6 , - , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" ,

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

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

Benoît Lutgen Benoît Lutgen (born 10 March 1970) is a Belgian politician who served as head of the Centre démocrate humaniste (Humanist Democrat Centre) political party in Belgium from 2011 to 2019. Early life Benoît Lutgen was born on 10 March 1970 in Bast ...

, 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 Olivier is the French form of the given name Oliver. It may refer to: * Olivier (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Olivier (surname), a list of people * Château Olivier, a Bordeaux winery *Olivier, Louisiana, a rural popul ...

Emily Hoyos Emily may refer to: * Emily (given name), including a list of people with the name Music * "Emily" (1964 song), title song by Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer to the film ''The Americanization of Emily'' * "Emily" (Dave Koz song), a 1990 song ...

, 172,682 , 8.53 , 10.00 , , 10 , - , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , Workers' Party (PTB–GO!) , style="text-align:left;" , Socialism , style="text-align:left;" ,

, 117.228 , 5.79 , 4.55 , , 2 , - , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" , People's Party (PP) , style="text-align:left;" , Conservative liberalism , style="text-align:left;" ,

Mischaël Modrikamen Mischaël Modrikamen (born 22 February 1966) is a Belgians, Belgian right wing politician and lawyer. He is the co-founder and leader of the People's Party (Belgium), People's Party. He is the vice-president of the Alliance for Direct Democracy in ...

, 98,840 , 4.89 , ''new'' , , 1 , - style="border-top:2px solid gray;" , style="background-color: " width=5px, , style="text-align:left;" ,

Francophone Democratic Federalists French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the la ...

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

Olivier Maingain Olivier D. A. Gh. Maingain (born 3 August 1958) is a Belgian francophone politician and former president of DéFI. Biography After graduating as Master of Laws he qualified as a lawyer in 1982. In 1983 he became president of the FDF Youth. He wa ...

, 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 __NOTOC__ Didier is a French masculine given name and surname common throughout the Romance languages. It comes from the Ancient Roman names Didius and Desiderius. During the 5th century AD, with the Christianisation of ancient pagan names, it has ...

(FDF, 22,906),

Vincent De Wolf Vincent ( la, Vincentius) is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, which is derived from the Latin word (''to conquer''). People with the given name Artists * Vincent Apap (1909–2003), Maltese sculptor *Vincent van Gogh ...

(MR, 19,919),

Joëlle Milquet Joëlle F.G.M. Milquet ( ; born 17 February 1961) is a Belgian politician from the Humanist Democratic Centre (CDH). Education She studied classics at the in Charleroi, before going on to graduate in law from the Université Catholique de Louva ...

(cdH, 19,416),

Charles Picqué Charles Picqué (born 1 November 1948) is a Belgian politician. He is a former Minister-President of the Brussels Capital-Region. After obtaining a master's degree in economics at the Institut d'administration et de gestion at the Louvain Schoo ...

(PS, 16,859) and

Rudi Vervoort Rudi Vervoort (born 20 November 1958) is a Brussels politician. He is the mayor of Evere since 1998 and member of the Brussels Parliament. He became the Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region on 7 May 2013 and is responsible for Local ...

(PS, 16,742). The candidate receiving the most preference votes was

Guy Vanhengel Guy Vanhengel (born 10 June 1958) is a Flemish politician for the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD). Vanhengel graduated (1979) as a teacher and taught class until 1981. After his army service (1981–1982) he started working as a spokespers ...

(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, led by Karl-Heinz Lambertz (SP), is a coalition of the Socialist Party (SP), the liberal

Party for Freedom and Progress The Party for Freedom and Progress ( nl, Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang; french: Parti de la Liberté et du Progrès; german: Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt, PVV-PLP) was a liberal political party in Belgium which existed from 1961 unti ...

(PFF) and the regionalist ProDG. Only a few days after the elections, these parties agreed to continue their coalition government, but with

Oliver Paasch Oliver Paasch (; Malmedy, 21 October 1971) is a Belgian politician of the German-speaking Pro Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft party and the incumbent Minister-president of the German-speaking Community of Belgium. Between 2004 and 2014 he held ...

(ProDG) as Minister-President since his party became bigger than SP.

References

External links

Elections 2014
-

Federal Public Service Home Affairs The FPS Interior ( nl, FOD Binnenlandse Zaken, french: SPF Intérieur, german: FÖD Inneres), formerly the Ministry of the Interior, is a Federal Public Service of Belgium. It was created by Royal Order on January 14, 2002, as part of the plans o ...

2014 Flemish Parliament elections
- Flemish Internal Administration Agency {{Belgian elections

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

2014 elections in Belgium May 2014 events in Europe