List of political parties in Belgium

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This article contains a list of political parties in Belgium.

.

Almost all

Francophone parties or Germanophone

parties.

The Flemish parties operate in

German-speaking community

.

From the creation of the Belgian state in 1830 and throughout most of the 19th century, two political parties dominated

Belgian politics: the Catholic Party (Church-oriented and conservative) and the Liberal Party (anti-clerical and progressive). In the late 19th century, the Labour Party

arose to represent the emerging industrial working class. These three groups still dominate Belgian politics, but they have evolved substantially in character.

Party status and financing

In Belgium, the status of political parties is not defined or regulated by the constitution or by laws. A party does not even need to be a formal organisation or be registered; they can exist de facto. Anyone can simply stand for elections by presenting an electoral list, provided the candidates are eligible and the list is supported by incumbent members of that body or by a certain number of voters.

Nevertheless, some aspects have been strictly regulated in the last decades. Private funding of political parties is very restricted; political parties are publicly funded based on the number of votes they received in the elections as well as for parliamentary groups (in total c. €70 million per year). Campaign expenses are regulated during a certain period preceding an election (sperperiode).

The law of 4 July 1989 on electoral expenses (for Chamber elections) and party financing uses the following definition of a political party:

The association of

legal personality

, that participates in elections defined by the Constitution and by law, that, in accordance with article 117 of the Electoral Code, presents candidates for the office of representative in each electoral district of a Community or Region and that, within the limits of the Constitution, of the law, the decree and the ordinance, aims to influence the expression of the popular will in the way described in its articles or its programme.

One

non-profit association (vzw/asbl) must be designated in order to receive public funding and provide accounting to an audit committee. Usually the main political parties have multiple such vzws/asbls that exist to facilitate their party structure. For example, when Vlaams Blok was taken to court for racism in 2004, the court in fact convicted three vzws, after which a successor party Vlaams Belang

was founded.

Equivalent laws exist for the electoral expenses in the European Parliament elections, the regional elections and local elections.

Main ideologies or categories

Catholics/Christian Democrats

After World War II, the Catholic (now Christian Democratic) Party severed its formal ties with the Church. It became a mass party of the centre.

In 1968, the Christian Democratic Party, responding to linguistic tensions in the country, divided into two independent parties: the

Centre démocrate humaniste (cdH), and in 2022 again to Les Engagés ('The Committed Ones') abandoning their christian democratic roots.^[1]

After the big losses in the 1999 general elections, when both CVP and PSC were banished to the opposition benches, some party members decided to leave the mother parties in order to form a new

. Both parties soon joined the major liberal parties, respectively the VLD in Flanders and the MR in Wallonia.

Socialists/Social Democrats

The modern Belgian Socialist parties are the descendants of the

Foreign Minister

, all three Flemish Socialists, the party made a significant shift to the centre adopting less controversial stances on foreign policy issues.

The Francophone

in 2021.

Recently, because of grassroots allegations about the party's "too little Socialist stand" in many political issues, a radical party wing broke away from the motherparty and formed, with support from smaller leftist parties, the Committee for Another Policy (CAP). Within the SP.a, the more Marxist SP.a-Rood, is trying to change the course of the party.

Liberals

The Liberal Parties chiefly appeal to businesspeople, property owners, shopkeepers, and the self-employed, in general. In the terms generally used in English-speaking countries, Belgian liberals would be called "moderate conservatives", "fiscal conservatives" and "social liberals".

There are two Liberal parties, formed along linguistic lines: The

Recently, the Flemish liberal party faced several high-ranking elected officials breaking away in order to found new "right-liberal" parties: MEP

, PP).

Communists

The first

Parti Communiste

(PC) in Wallonia, see themselves as the successors.

The most successful

.

Other minor communist and far-left parties include: the

(LSP-PSL).

Regionalist parties

A specific phenomenon in Belgium was the emergence of one-issue parties whose only reason for existence was the defence of the cultural, political, and economic interests of one of the linguistic groups or regions of Belgian society. See

Flemish movement

.

The most militant Flemish regional party in Parliament in the 1950s and 1960s, the

model of governance, and do eventually propose full secession from the Belgian confederation.

Democratic, Federalist, Independent (DéFI) is a Brussels French-speaking Belgian political party that aims to defend and expand linguistic rights of French-speaking people in and around Brussels. It has been affiliated with the Mouvement Réformateur, a liberal alliance party, under the name FDF.

The Union des Francophones (UF) is an electoral list combining the major Belgian Francophone parties for the regional elections in Flanders.

The German-speaking Pro deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft (ProDG) is the successor of the hard-line Partei der Deutschsprachigen Belgier (PDB). PDB itself split from the Christian-democratic CSP and was a member of European Free Alliance and Federal Union of European Nationalities (ProDG is still member of the latter).

Greens

The Flemish (Agalev) and Francophone (Ecolo) ecologist parties made their parliamentary breakthrough in 1981. They focus heavily on environmental issues and are the most consistent critics of U.S. policy. Following significant gains made in the 1999 general elections, the two green parties joined a federal coalition cabinet for the first time in their history, but were ousted after the next elections. Agalev subsequently changed its name to Groen! in 2003. In 2012, the party dropped its trademark exclamation point and went on as Groen.

Nationalists

The foremost Flemish party in Belgium is the Vlaams Belang, which was founded in 2004, after its predecessor was condemned by a High Court for "permanent incitation to discrimination and racism." On the far right, the Flanders separatist party Vlaams Blok steadily rose in the 1980s and 1990s. The other parties except the fortuynist party VLOTT maintain a cordon sanitaire on the Vlaams Belang as they did the Vlaams Blok.^[6][7] Although other parties in Belgium are supportive of Flemish and Dutch cultural issues, the Vlaams Belang is most strident in pursuing a secessionist agenda, for Flemish independence.

In Wallonia, the

(FN) was the largest anti-immigrant Wallonian party. Officially, it was a bilingual party, but in reality, it was a purely French-speaking group, although it did support Belgian federalism.

Alliances

After the installation of a 5%

, with private funding close to forbidden and public funding only for parties with at least one representative in parliament, some of the smaller parties have made alliances with a larger, more traditional party, especially in the Flemish Region. Parties in any alliance remain independent, but they would field candidates on one combined list at elections. In general, the smaller party/parties would be assured of gaining seats, and the larger party would be assured of obtaining a larger overall share of the vote. This was especially true for the CD&V/N-VA alliance, whereby CD&V became the largest party by votes in the Flemish regional elections, so therefore it could initiate coalition talks and the party could appoint the leader of the Flemish regional government. The VLD/Vivant alliance did not perform well in the polls. The proposed SP.a/Spirit/Groen! alliance did not happen, instead the SP.a/Spirit alliance went to the polls, although the tripartite cartel became reality in some constituencies on the local level in the October 2006 municipal elections.

Political parties

Flemish parties

Name			Ideology	Position	Leader	Representatives	Flemish MPs	Flemish MEPs
	N-VA	New Flemish Alliance Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie	Flemish nationalism	Centre-right to right-wing	Bart De Wever	25 / 150	35 / 124	3 / 12
	VB	Flemish Interest Vlaams Belang	Right-wing populism	far-right	Tom Van Grieken	18 / 150	23 / 124	3 / 12
	CD&V	Christian Democratic and Flemish Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams	Christian democracy	Centre to centre-right	Sammy Mahdi	12 / 150	19 / 124	2 / 12
	Open Vld	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten	Liberalism	Centre-right	Egbert Lachaert	12 / 150	16 / 124	2 / 12
	Groen	Green Groen	Green politics	left-wing	Nadia Naji and Jeremie Vaneeckhout	8 / 150	14 / 124	1 / 12
	Vooruit	Forward Vooruit	Social democracy	Centre-left	Melissa Depraetere	9 / 150	12 / 124	1 / 12

Francophone parties

Name			Ideology	Position	Leader	Representatives	Walloon MPs	Walloon MEPs
	PS	Socialist Party Parti Socialiste	Social democracy	left-wing	Paul Magnette	20 / 150	28 / 94	2 / 8
	MR	Reformist Movement Mouvement Réformateur	Liberalism	Centre-right	Georges-Louis Bouchez	14 / 150	23 / 94	2 / 8
	Ecolo	Ecolo Ecolo	Green politics	left-wing	Jean-Marc Nollet Rajae Maouane	13 / 150	16 / 94	2 / 8
	LE	The Committed Ones Les Engagés	Social liberalism	Centre	Maxime Prévot	5 / 150	11 / 94	1 / 8
	DéFI	DéFI DéFI	Regionalism	centre-right	François De Smet	2 / 150	3 / 94	0 / 8

Bilingual parties

Name			Ideology	Position	Leader	Representatives	Flemish MPs	Walloon MPs	MEPs
	PVDA–PTB	Workers' Party of Belgium Partij van de Arbeid van België Parti du Travail de Belgique	Marxism	Left-wing to far-left	Raoul Hedebouw	12 / 150	4 / 124	13 / 94	1 / 21

German-speaking parties

Name			Ideology	Position	Parliamentary leader	PDG MPs	Community MEPs	National affiliation
	ProDG	ProDG ProDG	Regionalism	Centre to centre-right	Clemens Scholzen	6 / 25	0 / 1	None
	CSP	Christian Social Party Christlich Soziale Partei	Christian democracy	Centre to centre-right	Luc Frank	6 / 25	1 / 1	cdH
	SP	Socialist Party Sozialistische Partei	Social democracy	Centre-left to left-wing	Charles Servaty	4 / 25	0 / 1	PS
	Vivant	Vivant Vivant	Social liberalism	Centre-left	Roland Duchâtelet	3 / 25	0 / 1	Vivant
	Ecolo	Ecolo Ecolo	Green politics	Centre-left to left-wing	Freddy Mockel	3 / 25	0 / 1	Ecolo
	PFF	Party for Freedom and Progress Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt	Liberalism	Centre to centre-right	Kattrin Jadin	3 / 25	0 / 1	MR

Minor parties

Flemish

• Libertair, Direct, Democratisch
  /LDD (Libertarian, Direct, Democratic)
• Rood! (Red!, socialist party)
• VLOTT
• ROSSEM
• Anderz
• VolksLiga - Libertarian party

Francophone

• Force Nationale - Walloon far right party
• Front Nouveau de Belgique - Walloon far right party
• Rassemblement Wallonie-France
• Rassemblement Wallon
• Liberal Democrats (LiDem) (former Listes Destexhe)
• Chez Nous

Bilingual/Unionist

• Piratenpartij - Parti pirate
• DierAnimal (Party for the animals) ^[8]
• Be.One (immigrant rights) ^[9]
• Communistische Partij van België/PCB (Communist Party of Belgium)
• Parti Communautaire National-Européen
• Agora
• Belgische Unie - Union Belge
  /BUB (Belgian Union)
• Pro Bruxsel
• European Federalist Party
• Comité voor een Andere Politiek - Comité pour une Autre Politique/CAP (Committee for Another Policy)
• Internationale Arbeidersliga - Ligue Internationale des Travailleurs (International Workers' League)
• Ligue communiste révolutionnaire - Socialistische Arbeiderspartij
  /LCR-SAP (Revolutionary Communist League)
• Linkse Socialistische Partij - Parti Socialiste de Lutte/LSP-PSL (Left Socialist Party)
• Volt Belgique - België - Belgien (Belgian section of Volt Europa)
• l'Unie (Unitaire)

Historical parties

• Catholic Party (1869–1945)
• Frontpartij (1919–1933)
• Communist Party of Belgium (1921–1989)
• Christian Social Party (1945–1968)
• Rexist Party - Walloon far right party (1935–1945)
• Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond - Flemish far right party (1933–1944)
• Catholic Flemish People's Party (1936–1945)
• Agir - Walloon far right party (1989–1997)
• Party of New Forces - Walloon far right party (1975–1991)

See also

• Political parties in Flanders
• List of political parties by country
• Liberalism in Belgium
• Pillarisation
• Politics of Belgium
• Politics of Flanders
• Politics of Wallonia

References