Political parties in Flanders

Flanders has a diverse multi-party system of politics. Many parties are active, and often none succeeds in obtaining more than one third of the votes, let alone a majority. Therefore, parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.

Most current Flemish parties grew from the main political parties that for long dominated Belgian politics: the

The Christian-democratic party has its origins in the 19th century. in that period, it mainly competed with the liberals. They for long took turns in leading Belgian government. By the end of the 19th century, the then emerging socialist party rapidly took an important place in Belgian politics. This continued in the first half of the 20th century. In the 1930s, the Christian-democrats started feeling competition from Flemish nationalists.

After World War II, the Catholic (now Christian Democratic) Party severed its formal ties with the Church. It became a mass party of the center, somewhat like a big tent political party in the United States.

In 1978, the Christian Democratic Party, responding to linguistic tensions in the country, divided into two independent parties: the Parti Social Chrétien (PSC) in French-speaking Belgium and the Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP) in Flanders. The two parties pursue the same basic policies but maintain separate organizations. The CVP was the larger of the two, getting more than twice as many votes as the PSC.

Following the

The modern Socialist party have lost its original Marxist ideology. They are now social-democratic parties similar to those also affiliated to the pan-European Party of European Socialists. The Socialists have been part of many postwar governments and have produced some of the country's most distinguished statesmen. As with the Belgian Christian Democrats, the Belgian Socialist Party also split along linguistic lines in 1978.

In the 1980s, the Flemish Socialists focused heavily on international issues, and on security in Europe in particular, where they frequently opposed U.S. policies. However, first with

In 2001, the Flemish Socialist Party (Socialistische Partij, SP) changed its name to Socialist Party Different (Socialistische Partij anders) and was most commonly known by the acronym SP.a. Until on 21 March 2021 when the current name Forward (Vooruit) was adopted.

Liberals

The

The foremost nationalist party in Flanders is the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest), which was founded in 2004, after its predecessor Vlaams Blok (Flemish Block) was condemned by a High Court for "permanent incitation to discrimination and racism." The Vlaams Belang is most strident in pursuing a nationalist agenda (Flemish independence).

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

In the 2010 federal elections, the New Flemish Alliance became the biggest party and broke the domination of the traditional parties.

Ecologists/Greens

The Flemish ecologists (Groen, previously called Agalev and Groen!) made their parliamentary breakthrough in 1981. They focus heavily on environmental issues and investing in public transport to solve mobility issues.

Their results generally remain stable, the greens were especially successful in the 1999 federal elections, after which they joined a federal coalition cabinet for the first time in their history, but were ousted after the next elections. They similarly joined Flemish governments in the 1999-2004 period.

French-speaking minority

The

(LSP).

Alliances

After the installation of a 5%

electoral threshold

, 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. 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 succeed, instead the SP.a / Spirit alliance went to the polls.

Electoral results and membership

Vote share for the 2019 Flemish Parliament elections N-VA   24.8% Vlaams Belang   18.5% CD&V   15.4% Open Vld   13.1% sp.a   10.1% Groen   10.1% PVDA+   5.3% UF   0.7% Other   1.9%

CD&V had the highest number of members (followed by the other two traditional parties) from its founding until the 2010s, when its membership decreased rapidly and sunk below Open Vld.

Membership of Flemish political parties (2014)[1] Open Vld   63,239 CD&V   56,746 sp.a   49,703 N-VA   41,176 Vlaams Belang   17,255 Groen   7,800

The parties

Representative parties

• Christian-Democratic and Flemish
  (Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams, CD&V)
• Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang, VB)
• Green (Groen)
• New Flemish Alliance
  (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA)
• Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats
  (Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten, Open VLD)
• Forward (Vooruit)
• Union of Francophones (Union des Francophones, UF)
• Worker's Party of Belgium (Partij van de Arbeid van Belgiquë, PVDA)

Parties not represented in the Flemish Parliament

• Belgian Union
  (Belgische Unie, BUB)
• Free Flemish Christian Democrats [nl] (Vrije Vlaamse Christen Democraten, VCD)
• Left Socialist Party (Linkse Socialistische Partij, LSP)
• Libertarian, Direct, Democratic
  (Libertair, Direct, Democratisch, previously Lijst Dedecker, LDD)
• Pirate Party (Piratenpartij)
• Red! (Rood!)
• Socialist Workers' Party
  (Socialistische Arbeiders Partij, SAP)
• Vivant

See also

• Political parties in Belgium

References