2019 Belgian regional elections

The 2019 Belgian regional elections took place on Sunday 26 May, the same day as the 2019 European Parliament election^[1] as well as the Belgian federal election.^[2][3]

In the regional elections, new representatives were chosen for the Flemish Parliament, Walloon Parliament, Brussels Parliament and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community. The Parliament of the French Community was composed of all elected members of the Walloon Parliament (except German-speaking members) and 19 of the French-speaking members of the Brussels Parliament.

The elections followed the 2014 elections and were shortly after the 2018 local elections, which indicated voters' tendencies after an unusually long period of time without any elections in Belgium.

The regional parliaments have limited power over their own election; federal law largely regulates this and the federal government organises the elections, which occur per Article 117 of the Constitution on the same day as the European Parliament elections.

As such, all regional parliaments were elected using proportional representation under the D'Hondt method. Only Belgian citizens in Belgium had the right to vote, and voting was mandatory for them. Belgians living abroad were allowed to vote in European and federal elections, but not in regional elections.

The following timetable is fixed for the simultaneous European, federal and regional elections:

2019 Flemish parliamentary election

← 2014 26 May 2019 (2019-05-26) 2024 →
All 124 seats in the Flemish Parliament 63 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	92.2%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Bart De Wever Filip Dewinter Hilde Crevits Party N-VA Flemish Interest CD&V Leader's seat Antwerp Antwerp West Flanders Last election 43 seats, 31.9% 6 seats, 5.9% 27 seats, 20.5% Seats won 35 23 19 Seat change 8 17 8 Popular vote 1,052,252 783,977 652,766 Percentage 24.8% 18.5% 15.4% Swing 7.1 pp 12.6 pp 5.1 pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Party Open Vld sp.a Groen Last election 19 seats, 14.2% 18 seats, 14.0% 10 seats, 8.7% Seats won 16 13 14 Seat change 3 5 4 Popular vote 556,630 438,589 428,696 Percentage 13.1% 10.3% 10.1% Swing 1.1 pp 3.7 pp 1.4 pp
Flemish Government before election Bourgeois Government N-VA–CD&V–Open Vld coalition Elected Flemish Government Jambon Government N-VA-CD&V-Open Vld coalition

124 members of the Flemish Parliament were elected. The five Flemish provinces (West Flanders, East Flanders, Antwerp, Flemish Brabant and Limburg) each were a constituency, plus the Brussels-Capital Region where those voting for a Dutch-language party could also vote in the Flemish election.

The incumbent Bourgeois Government was made up of a coalition of Flemish nationalists (N-VA), Christian democrats (CD&V) and liberals (Open Vld). The incumbent Minister-President was Geert Bourgeois (N-VA). The three-party centre-right government coalition had a comfortable majority.

In the October 2018 local elections, no major shifts occurred, although N-VA and sp.a lost some support while Vlaams Belang and Groen generally gained votes. CD&V and Open Vld remained stable.

Incumbent Minister-President Bourgois (N-VA) contended in the simultaneous European Parliament elections; N-VA president Bart De Wever (N-VA) was their party's candidate to succeed him as head of the Flemish Government. Minister Hilde Crevits was CD&V's candidate for Minister-President. Open Vld explicitly did not put forward a candidate.

The following candidates are the first on the respective party list (lijsttrekker) per constituency.

• Minister Jo Vandeurzen (CD&V, Limburg)^[4]
• Rob Beenders (sp.a, Limburg)^[5]
• Yamila Idrissi (sp.a, Brussels)^[6]
• Grete Remen (N-VA, Limburg)^[7]
• Johan Verstreken (CD&V, West Flanders)^[8]

2019 Walloon parliamentary election

← 2014 26 May 2019 (2019-05-26) 2024 →
All 75 seats in the Walloon Parliament 38 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	93.4%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Elio Di Rupo Charles Michel Jean-Marc Nollet Zakia Khattabi Party PS MR Ecolo Last election 30 seats, 30.9% 25 seats, 26.7% 4 seats, 8.6% Seats won 23 20 12 Seat change 7 5 8 Popular vote 532,422 435,878 294,631 Percentage 26.2% 21.4% 14.5% Swing 4.7 pp 5.3 pp 5.9 pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Peter Mertens Maxime Prévot Party PVDA-PTB cdH Last election 2 seats, 5.8% 13 seats, 15.2% Seats won 10 10 Seat change 8 3 Popular vote 278,343 223,775 Percentage 13.7% 11.0% Swing 7.9 pp 4.2 pp
Walloon Government before election Borsus Government [fr] MR–cdH coalition Elected Walloon Government Di Rupo III Government [fr] PS–MR–Ecolo coalition

75 members of the Walloon Parliament were elected. The members were elected in multi-member arrondissement-based constituencies; the Walloon Parliament is the only parliament in Belgium still using this geographical level for constituencies. A January 2018 law however reduced the constituencies from 13 to 11, following a successful challenge by Ecolo to the Constitutional Court that constituencies with too few seats are unrepresentative. Both Luxembourg constituencies were merged and the Hainaut constituencies were redrawn.

After the 2014 elections, a coalition government of the Socialist Party (PS) and Christian democrats (cdH) was formed. In 2017 however, following major scandals involving mainly PS, cdH opted to continue governing with MR as the main party instead of PS. Willy Borsus (MR) succeeded Paul Magnette (PS) as Minister-President of Wallonia in July 2017. This was the first time a government majority changed during a legislative term of a Belgian regional government.^[9]

All 89 members of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region were elected. They were elected at-large, but there were separate Dutch-language party lists (electing 17 members) and French-language party lists (electing 72 members). Those voting for a Dutch-language party could also cast a vote for the Flemish Parliament election.

All 25 members of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community were elected in one constituency (at-large).

In the 2014–2019 period, the government was made up of regionalist ProDG, the socialist party and the liberal PFF, headed by Minister-President Oliver Paasch (ProDG).

• Elections 2019 - Federal Public Service Interior