Vooruit (

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

for Forward, ) is a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

social democratic political party in Belgium. The party was known as the Flemish Socialist Party (1978–2001: ''Socialistische Partij'', SP; 2001–2021: ''Socialistische Partij Anders'', SP.A) until 21 March 2021, when its current name was adopted. The party was founded following the linguistic split of the Belgian Socialist Party in 1978, which also produced the Francophone

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

. The Belgian Socialist Party itself consisted of former members of the

Belgian Labour Party The Belgian Labour Party ( nl, Belgische Werkliedenpartij, BWP; french: Parti ouvrier belge, POB) was the first major socialist party in Belgium. Founded in 1885, the party was officially disbanded in 1940 and superseded by the Belgian Socialist ...

. From December 2011 to September 2014, the party was part of the

Di Rupo Government The Di Rupo Government was the federal cabinet of Belgium sworn in on 6 December 2011, after a record-breaking 541 days of negotiations following the June 2010 elections. The government included social democrats ( sp.a/ PS), Christian democrat ...

, along with its Francophone counterpart. In 2020, it re-entered federal government as part of the

De Croo Government The De Croo Government is the incumbent Federal Government of Belgium, led by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo since 1 October 2020. History The creation of the De Croo Government occurred on 1 October 2020, 494 days after the 2019 Belgian fed ...

. The party has been a part of the

Flemish Government The Flemish Government ( nl, Vlaamse regering ) is the executive branch of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region of Belgium. It consists of a government cabinet, headed by the Minister-President and accountable to the Flemish Parliament, ...

several times.

History

1885–1940

1940–1978

Since 1978

The party was the big winner in the 2003 election, running on the SP.A–Spirit joint list (

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...

) with the

social-liberal Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...

party

Spirit Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...

. 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! Groen ( English: Green; nl, Groen, ), founded as Agalev (see Name below), is a green Flemish political party in Belgium. Its French-speaking equivalent is Ecolo; the two parties maintain close relations with each other. Party history Before ...

party (formerly known as ''Agalev''). SP.A was part of the "

purple Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, ...

" 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 Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

. 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. 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. Unlike its Francophone counterpart, the

(PS), SP.A was not a participant in the

Leterme II Government The Leterme II Government was the federal government of Belgium from 25 November 2009 to 26 April 2010, and the caretaker government until 6 December 2011. It took office when the Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme (CD&V) was sworn in as Pr ...

. 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''). In the 2010 federal election, SP.A won 13 seats with 9% of the overall vote. The party was a member of the

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

, 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. Vooruit, Back to the Climate 2021

In January 2018, the party advocated for a "new socialism" and a "new equality". In September 2020, party leader Conner Rousseau announced a renaming of the party to ''Vooruit'' ("Forward"). The new name was made official on 21 March 2021.