2019 European Parliament election in Belgium

The European Parliament election of 2019 in Belgium was held on 26 May 2019 in the three Belgian constituencies: the Dutch-speaking electoral college, the French-speaking electoral college and the German-speaking electoral college.

European Parliament election in Belgium, 2019
26 May 2019
All 21 Belgian seats to the European Parliament
Turnout88.47%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Geert Bourgeois Gerolf Annemans Guy Verhofstadt
Party N-VA VB Open Vld
Alliance ECR EAPN ALDE
Last election 4 seats, 16.79% 1 seat, 4.26% 3 seats, 12.84%
Seats won 3 3 2
Seat change 1 2 1
Popular vote 954,048 811,169 678,051
Percentage 14.17% 12.05% 10.07%
Swing 2.62% 7.79% 2.77%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Paul Magnette Kris Peeters Marc Botenga
Party PS CD&V PVDA-PTB
Alliance PES EPP GUE/NGL
Last election 3 seats, 10.68% 2 seats, 12.57% 0 seats, 3.51%
Seats won 2 2 1
Seat change 1 0 1
Popular vote 655,812 617,651 566,274
Percentage 9.74% 9.17% 8.42%
Swing 1.03% 3.39% 4.91%
  Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party
 
Leader Petra De Sutter Philippe Lamberts Olivier Chastel
Party Groen ECOLO MR
Alliance Green Green ALDE
Last election 1 seat, 6.69% 1 seat, 4.26% 3 seats, 9.88%
Seats won 1 2 2
Seat change 0 1 1
Popular vote 525,908 492,330 475,338
Percentage 7.81% 7.31% 7.06%
Swing 1.13% 2.95% 2.92%

A royal order of 15 June 2018 fixed the date of the European Parliament election in Belgium, following an agreement at European level.[1] Per the Belgian Constitution, the Belgian regional elections, and additionally the Belgian federal election because no snap election occurred, were automatically held on the same day.

Marianne Thyssen, who was re-elected Member of the European Parliament in 2014 as lijsttrekker for CD&V and who subsequently became European Commissioner, announced in July 2018 that she would quit politics in 2019.[2]

Electoral system
  Dutch-speaking electoral college (12 MEPs)
  French-speaking electoral college (8 MEPs)
  German-speaking electoral college (1 MEP)

As the reapportionment after Brexit did not impact the number of seats allocated to Belgium, 21 MEPs were elected in Belgium, as in the 2014 election. One of them is by law allocated to the German-speaking electoral college and the remaining ones are allocated to the Dutch-speaking and to the French-speaking electoral college in accordance with a population formula, giving them respectively twelve and eight seats, as in 2014.[3]

Voters could only vote on the lists depending on the language area they live in. This means that in the bilingual arrondissement of Brussels-Capital, voters could choose whether to vote for the Dutch-speaking or for the French-speaking electoral college. There was an exception to this rule for the six municipalities with language facilities in the Brussels Periphery, whose inhabitants could also opt to vote for French-speaking lists despite being in the Dutch language area.

Seats were allocated according to the D'Hondt method in each of the three electoral colleges; however, the German-speaking electoral college de facto used a first-past-the-post system, since it elected only one MEP. The electoral threshold was 5%, which was based off the vote share per electoral college rather than nationally.

All Belgian citizens aged 18 or over and residing in Belgium were obligated to participate in the election.

Other EU citizens residing in Belgium as well as Belgians living in another EU member state had the right to vote on Belgian lists in European Parliament elections. The law of 17 November 2016 extended this right to Belgians living in a non-EU member state, which was already possible for federal elections.




Results
 Summary of the results of the 26 May 2019 Belgian election to the European Parliament
2019
Party European party Main candidate Electoral college Votes % +/– E.c. % Seats +/–
New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) ECR Geert Bourgeois Dutch-speaking 954,048 14.17 2.62 22.44
3 / 21
 1
Flemish Interest (VB) EAPN Gerolf Annemans Dutch-speaking 811,169 12.05 7.79 19.08
3 / 21
 2
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) ALDE Guy Verhofstadt Dutch-speaking 678,051 10.07 2.77 15.95
2 / 21
 1
Socialist Party (PS-SP)


 PES
Paul Magnette
Matthias Zimmermann
French-speaking
German-speaking		 655,812
651,157
4,655		 9.74
9.67
0.07		 1.03
1.01
0.02
26.69
11.42
2 / 21


 1
1
0
Christian Democratic & Flemish (CD&V) EPP Kris Peeters Dutch-speaking 617,651 9.17 3.39 14.53
2 / 21
 0
Workers' Party of Belgium (PVDA-PTB)


 GUE/NGL
Marc Botenga
Line De Witte
French-speaking
Dutch-speaking		 566,274
355,883
210,391		 8.42
5.29
3.13		 4.91
3.29
1.62
14.59
4.95
1 / 21


 1
1
0
Green (Groen) EGP Petra De Sutter Dutch-speaking 525,908 7.81 1.13 12.37
1 / 21
 0
Ecolo


 EGP
Philippe Lamberts
Shqiprim Thaqi
French-speaking
German-speaking		 492,330
485,655
6,675		 7.31
7.21
0.10		 2.95
2.95
0.00
19.91
16.37
2 / 21


 1
1
0
Reformist Movement (MR)

Party for Freedom and Progress (PFF)
 ELDR
Olivier Chastel
Yves Derwahl
French-speaking
German-speaking		 475,338
470,654
4,684		 7.06
6.99
0.07		 2.92
2.90
0.02
19.29
11.49
2 / 21


 1
1
0
Socialist Party Differently (sp.a) PES Kathleen Van Brempt Dutch-speaking 434,002 6.45 1.85 10.21
1 / 21
 0
Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH) EPP Claude Rolin French-speaking 218,078 3.24 0.90 8.94
1 / 21
 0
Christian Social Party (CSP) EPP Pascal Arimont German-speaking 14,247 0.21 0.03 34.94
1 / 21
 0
Democratic, Federalist, Independent (DéFI) None Benoît Cassart French-speaking 144,555 2.15 0.91 5.92
0 / 21
 0
People's Party (PP) None Yasmine Dehaene French-speaking 113,793 1.69 0.49 4.66
0 / 21
 0
Volt Europa (Volt) None Christophe Calis Dutch-speaking 20,385 0.30 New 0.48
0 / 21
 0
Pro German Speaking Community (ProDG) None Lydia Klinkenberg German-speaking 5,360 0.08 0.00 13.14
0 / 21
 0
Vivant None Alain Mertes German-speaking 4,550 0.07 0.02 11.16
0 / 21
 0
DierAnimal None Reiner Barczinski German-speaking 606 0.01 New 1.49
0 / 21
 0
Valid votes 6,732,157 93.68
Blank and invalid votes 454,520 6.32
Totals 7,186,677 100.00 — — 21 0
Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout 8,122,985 88.47
Source: Federal Public Services Home Affairs

Elected members
Party Elected members
Dutch-speaking electoral college (12)
New Flemish Alliance (3) Geert Bourgeois, Assita Kanko, Johan Van Overtveldt
Vlaams Belang (3) Gerolf Annemans, Filip De Man, Tom Vandendriessche[4]
Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (2) Guy Verhofstadt, Hilde Vautmans
Christian Democratic & Flemish (2) Kris Peeters, Cindy Franssen
Groen (1) Petra De Sutter
Socialist Party Differently (1) Kathleen Van Brempt
French-speaking electoral college (8)
Socialist Party (2) Marie Arena, Marc Tarabella[5]
Ecolo (2) Philippe Lamberts, Saskia Bricmont
Reformist Movement (2) Olivier Chastel, Frédérique Ries
Workers' Party of Belgium (1) Marc Botenga
Humanist Democratic Centre (1) Benoît Lutgen
German-speaking electoral college (1)
Christian Social Party (1) Pascal Arimont

Groups

From 2019 European Parliament election#Groups

AllianceSeats
European People's Party (EPP)4
Renew Europe (RE)4
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)3
Identity and Democracy (ID)3
European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)3
Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA)3
European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)1
Non-Inscrits0

Outgoing delegation
Belgian parties in the European Parliament in the eighth legislature (2014–2019)
Group21 Dutch-speaking electoral college12 French-speaking electoral college8 German-speaking electoral college1
ALDE6 Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD)3 Reformist Movement (MR)3
ECR4 New Flemish Alliance (N-VA)4
S&D4 Socialist Party Differently (sp.a)1 Socialist Party (PS)3
EPP4 Christian Democratic & Flemish (CD&V)2 Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH)1 Christian Social Party (CSP)1
Greens-EFA2 Groen1 Ecolo1
ENF1 Vlaams Belang (VB)1

References
  1. 15 juni 2018. - Koninklijk besluit tot vastlegging van de datum van de verkiezing van het Europese Parlement
  2. "Marianne Thyssen stapt volgend jaar uit de politiek: "Er is ook een leven ernaast"". 12 July 2018.
  3. 30 JULI 2018. - Koninklijk besluit tot vaststelling van het aantal zetels dat toegekend wordt aan het Nederlandse kiescollege en het Franse kiescollege voor de verkiezing van het Europees Parlement
  4. Patsy Vatlet resigned from her seat before inauguration.
  5. Paul Magnette resigned from his seat before inauguration.
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