Socialistische Partij Anders

Part of a series on
Social democracy
History Age of Enlightenment Frankfurt Declaration French Revolution Godesberg Program Humanism Internationalist–defencist schism Keynesianism Labor movement Marxism Orthodox Revisionist Nordic model Reformist–revolutionary dispute Socialism Revolutions of 1848 Utopian socialism Welfare capitalism
Concepts Civil liberties Democracy Economic Industrial Representative Dirigisme Environmentalism Environmental protection Fair trade Gradualism Internationalism Land reform Labor rights Left-wing nationalism Mixed economy Nationalization Negative and positive rights Progressivism Reformism Left Socialism Revolutionary socialism Secularism Social corporatism Social justice Social market economy Socialist state Capitalism Socialism Trade union Tripartisme Welfare Welfare state
Variants Democratic socialism Ethical socialism Evolutionary socialism Liberal socialism Socialism of the 21st century Third Way
People Ambedkar Allende Ardern Attlee Awolowo Batlle y Ordóñez Bebel Ben-Gurion Bernstein Betancourt Bhutto Blair Blanc Brandt Branting Brown Callaghan Lázaro Cárdenas Chávez Clark Craxi Crosland Corbyn Curtin Daszyński Debs Douglas Drees Ebert Ecevit Engels Fraser Gaitskell Gandhi González Goulart Hardie Hilferding Jaurès Jenkins Junmai Katayama Kautsky Kerensky Kéthly Kirk Lagos Lassalle Layton Lenin Lévesque Liebknecht (father) Liebknecht (son) Luxemburg MacDonald Mandela Marx Morales Myrdal Nehru Batlle y Ordóñez Palme Plekhanov Prodi Russell Sanders Savage Stauning Thomas Den Uyl Webb Wilson Zhordania
Organizations International Trade Union Confederation International Union of Socialist Youth Party of European Socialists Progressive Alliance Socialist International Young European Socialists
By region Austria Germany United States
Related Communism "The Internationale" Socialism Types of socialism
Economics portal Politics portal Socialism portal

The party was the big winner in the 2003 election, running on the SP.A-Spirit joint list (cartel) with the social-liberal party Spirit. Their share of the vote went up from 9% (of the total Belgian vote) to almost 15%, a second place in the number of votes. The main victim of this resurgence was the Green! party (formerly known as Agalev). Sp.a was part of the "purple" federal coalitions of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt from 12 July 1999 until 10 June 2007, which contained both the Flemish and Francophone liberal and social-democratic parties.

In 2004, the sp.a along with its partner Spirit lost the elections for the Flemish Parliament. Although they won more seats in comparison to the Flemish elections of 1999, their percentage of the vote compared to the successful 2003 federal elections was considerably down. The reputation of then party leader Steve Stevaert took a beating too.

The party was briefly led by Caroline Gennez, after former president Steve Stevaert left to become governor of Limburg. Johan Vande Lanotte, who served as Minister of the Budget in the federal Government, was elected President and resigned as minister to become President on 17 October 2005. He resigned 11 June 2007, after sp.a-Spirit lost the elections for the federal parliament of 10 June 2007.[10] In these federal elections, the cartel won 14 out of 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 4 out of 40 seats in the Senate. Afterwards, Caroline Gennez was elected President by the party members.

As of May 2009, sp.a was in opposition in federal politics. Uunlike its Francophone counterpart, the Socialist Party (PS), sp.a was not a participant in the Leterme II Government.

In January 2009, the party had apparently changed its name to Socialists and Progressive Differently (Dutch: Socialisten en Progressieven Anders). This name change was retracted and the party baseline was changed from Social Progressive Alternative (Dutch: Sociaal Progressief Alternatief) to Socialists and Progressive Differently (Dutch: Socialisten en Progressieven Anders).[11]

In the 2010 federal election, sp.a won 13 seats with 9% of the overall vote. The party was a member of the Di Rupo Government formed on 6 December 2011, until the elections in 2014. In the elections for the Chamber of Representatives on 25 May 2014, sp.a scored again 9% and received 13 seats, in contrast to their francophone Socialist Party counterparts, who lost 3 seats and whose share of the vote decreased by 2%. In the Flemish Parliament, sp.a have 18 representatives, deriving from around 14% of the vote—this is a small reduction on the 2009 parliament, where sp.a had 19 seats, deriving from 15% of the popular vote. From 2009–2014, sp.a participated in the Flemish Government, in an uneasy coalition with the CD & V and the N-VA. From 2014 onwards, sp.a formed part of the opposition in Flanders, as the regional government reflected the Flemish component of the federal administration, consisting of coalition of the Open-VLD, CD & V and the N-VA.

In January 2018, the party advocated for a "new socialism" and a "new equality".[12][13]

Provincial Council
Province	Percentage	Seats
Antwerp	12,80%	10 / 72
Limburg	20,10%°	13 / 63
East Flanders	12,70%	9 / 72
Flemish Brabant	12,10%	8 / 72
West Flanders	15,80%	12 / 72

° In Limburg sp.a formed a cartel with Groen.

The main six Flemish political parties and their results for the Chamber of Representatives from 1978 to 2014 in percentages for the complete kingdom

Chamber of Representatives (Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers)
Election year	No. of overall votes	% of overall vote	% of language group vote	No. of overall seats won	No. of language group seats won	+/–	Government
1981	744,593	12.4		26 / 212			In opposition
1985	882,200	14.6		32 / 212		6	In opposition
1987	915,432	14.9		32 / 212		0	In coalition
1991	737,976	12.0		28 / 212		4	In coalition
1995	762,444	12.6		20 / 150	20 / 91	8	In coalition
1999	593,372	9.5		14 / 150	14 / 88	6	In coalition
2003*	979,750	14.9	24.9	23 / 150	23 / 88	9	In coalition
2007	684,390	10.3	16.3	14 / 150	14 / 88	9	In opposition
2010	602,867	9.24	14.6	13 / 150	13 / 88	1	In coalition
2014	595,190	8.85	14.04	13 / 150	13 / 87	0	In opposition
2019	455,034	6.71		9 / 150	9 / 87	4	Confidence and supply

Senate (Senaat)
Election year	No. of overall votes	% of overall vote	% of language group vote	No. of overall seats won	No. of language group seats won	+/–
1981	732,126	12.3		13
1985	868,624	14.5		16		3
1987	896,294	14.7		17		1
1991	730,274	11.9		14		3
1995	792,941	13.2		6 / 40	6 / 25	8
1999	550,657	8.9		4 / 40	4 / 25	2
2003*	1,013,560	15.5	24.9 (1st)	7 / 40	7 / 25	3
2007	665,342	10.0	16.2	4 / 40	4 / 25	3
2010	613,079	9.5	15.3	4 / 40	4 / 25	0
2014	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

• * In cartel with Spirit