This article contains a list of political parties in Belgium.

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

is a federal state with a multi-party political system, with numerous parties who factually have no chance of gaining power alone, and therefore must work with each other to form

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

s. Almost all Belgian

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

are divided into linguistic groups, either Dutch-speaking parties (see also political parties in Flanders),

Francophone The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...

parties or Germanophone parties. The Flemish parties operate in

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

and in the

Brussels-Capital Region Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital ...

. The Francophone parties operate in

Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium—along with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...

and in the Brussels-Capital Region. There are also parties operating in the comparatively small 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 Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

) and the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

( 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: 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 Vlaams Belang (; ; VB) is a Flemish nationalist, Eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels Capital Region of Belgium. It is widely considered by the media and political analysts to be on the polit ...

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 World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, 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 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 organisations. The CVP is the larger of the two, getting more than twice as many votes as the PSC. The chairman of the Flemish Catholic party is now Sammy Mahdi. Maxime Prévot is president of the Francophone Catholic party. Following the 1999 general elections, the CVP and PSC were ousted from office, bringing an end to a 40-year term on the government benches. In 2001, the CVP changed its name to Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V). In 1971 the German wing of the PSC became independent to get the name Christlich Soziale Partei. In 2002, the PSC changed its name to Centre démocrate humaniste (cdH), and in 2022 again to '' Les Engagés'' ('The Committed Ones') abandoning their christian democratic roots. 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 liberal-conservative party. In

, the New Christian Democrats (NCD) was founded by Johan Van Hecke and Karel Pinxten. In

, the

Citizens' Movement for Change Citizens' Movement for Change (, , MCC) is a Christian-democratic political party in the French Community of Belgium founded by Gérard Deprez in 1998. Deprez was the leader of the Francophone Christian Social Party (PSC) from 1982 to 1995. He l ...

(MCC) was founded by Gérard Deprez. 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

Belgian Labour Party The Belgian Labour Party (, , BWP; , , POB) was the first major Socialism, socialist party in Belgium. Founded in 1885, the party achieved its first electoral breakthrough in the aftermath of World War I. It was officially disbanded after the Ger ...

. They have lost much of their early

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

trends. They are now primarily labour-based parties similar to the German Social Democratic Party and the French Socialist Party. The Socialists have been part of several postwar governments and have produced some of the country's most distinguished statesmen. The Socialists also split along linguistic lines in 1978. Conner Rousseau is the current head of the Flemish Socialist Party and Paul Magnette is the current president of the Francophone Socialists. In general, the Walloon Socialists tend to concentrate on domestic issues. 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 Willy Claes, then Frank Vandenbroucke and with Erik Derycke as

Foreign Minister In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

, all three Flemish Socialists, the party made a significant shift to the centre adopting less controversial stances on foreign policy issues. The Francophone Parti Socialiste (PS) is mainly based in the industrial cities of Wallonia (

Liège Liège ( ; ; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east o ...

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

, and Mons). The Flemish Socialists' support is less regionally concentrated. PS is known in East Belgium as Sozialistische Partei (SP). The Flemish Socialists changed their party's name to Socialistische Partij Anders (SP.a) in 2002 and to Vooruit 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 The Committee for Another Policy (, ), abbreviated to CAP, was a Belgium, Belgian Left-wing politics, left-wing politics, political movement that was established in 2005, and became a political party in 2006. Formation The initiators of the commit ...

(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 Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (Open VLD) who opened up their ranks to Volksunie and CD&V defectors some years ago, managed to break the dominance of CD&V over Belgian politics in 1999. Open VLD is currently headed by Eva De Bleeker. The Mouvement Réformateur (MR) is the equivalent party on the Francophone side, and is headed by Georges-Louis Bouchez. The MR is a federation mainly composed of the former PRL, it is also composed of the Germanophone Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt (PFF),Official website
and is eventually also composed of the Christian-democratic split-off called MCC. It used to be composed of the Brussels-based FDF until September 2012, which is now an independent party. Recently, the Flemish liberal party faced several high-ranking elected officials breaking away in order to found new "right-liberal" parties: MEP Ward Beysen ( Liberaal Appèl, LA), senator Leo Goovaerts (Veilig Blauw), senator Hugo Coveliers ( VLOTT), chief of the High Supervisory Committee Willy Vermeulen (Verstandig Rechts), VLD board member Boudewijn Bouckaert (Cassandra vzw) and senator Jean-Marie Dedecker ( Lijst Dedecker, LDD). There has been also francophone "right-liberal" parties: senator Alain Destexhe ( Listes Destexhe) and former Deputy Head of the Cabinet of Serge Kubla (first Libéral Démocrate, LiDé and later co-founded Parti populaire, PP).

Communists

The first

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

party in Belgium was founded by the more radical elements of the

in 1921 and was named the Communist Party of Belgium (KPB-PCB). The party was a member of the

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

and entered parliament in 1925. It received its highest score in the post-war elections of 1946, when it won 12.7% of the popular vote and took part in the next coalition government. With the start of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

the party started its decline and after the elections of 1985 it was no longer represented in the Belgian Parliament. The party eventually disbanded itself in 1989, but two minor parties, the Kommunistische Partij (KP) in Flanders and the Parti Communiste (PC) in Wallonia, see themselves as the successors. The most successful

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

movement to emerge in Belgium was ''All Power To The Workers'' (AMADA-TPO) at the end of the 1960s during a time of students protests at the University of Leuven. In 1979 this movement evolved into the Workers' Party of Belgium (PVDA-PTB), which is currently the largest communist party in Belgium and is represented in various municipal and provincial councils, as well as in the Chamber of Representatives, in the

Flemish Parliament The Flemish Parliament (Dutch language, Dutch: , formerly called Flemish Council or ''Vlaamse Raad'') constitutes the legislature, legislative power in Flanders for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic reg ...

, in the Walloon Parliament and in the Brussels Parliament. Other minor communist and far-left parties include: the

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

Revolutionary Communist League (LCR-SAP) and the Left Socialist Party (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 Volksunie (VU), once drew nearly one-quarter of Belgium's Dutch-speaking electorate away from the traditional parties. The Volksunie was in the forefront of a successful campaign by the country's Flemish population for cultural and political parity with the nation's long dominant French-speaking population. However, in the nineties, the party has suffered severe setbacks. In October 2001, the party disintegrated. The left-liberal wing founded ''Spirit'', later called the Social Liberal Party, while the more traditional Flemish nationalist wing continued under the banner Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA). After a disappointing result in the regional elections of 2009, the Social Liberal Party decided to merge with the Flemish ecologists of ''Groen!''. The N-VA, on the other hand, formed an electoral alliance with Christian-democratic CD&V from 2004 to 2008. After this period, the party's popularity grew significantly and it became the largest Flemish party. N-VA won the 2010 federal elections with 28% of the Flemish votes (17.4% of overall vote) and the 2014 Flemish parliament election with 31.9% of votes. The N-VA is led by Bart De Wever who has been mayor of Antwerp since 2013. N-VA member Geert Bourgeois has been minister-president of the Flemish government from 2014 to 2019. N-VA policies are primarily focused on economic reform through extended

devolution Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territori ...

of political power within the Belgian

confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

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

, 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. 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 Front National (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%

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ...

, 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

Francophone parties

Bilingual parties

German-speaking parties

Minor parties

Flemish

* '' VLOTT'' * ''VolksLiga'' - Libertarian party

Francophone

* '' Liberal Democrats'' (LiDem) (former Listes Destexhe) * '' Chez Nous'' * '' Collectif Citoyen''

Bilingual/Unionist

* '' Piratenpartij - Parti pirate'' * '' DierAnimal (Party for the animals)'' * ''Be.One (immigrant rights)'' * '' Communistische Partij van België/PCB'' (Communist Party of Belgium) *

Agora The agora (; , romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Ancient Greece, Greek polis, city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center ...

* '' 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 Volt Europa (known mononymously as Volt) is a transnational pro-European and Federalisation of the European Union, federalist European political alliances, European political movement. It operates as a Pan-European identity, pan-European umbrell ...

)'' * '' 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) * '' Force Nationale'' - Walloon far right party * Front Nouveau de Belgique - Walloon far right party * '' Rassemblement Wallonie-France'' * '' Rassemblement Wallon'' * '' Parti Communautaire National-Européen'' * '' Anderz'' * '' ROSSEM'' * '' Rood!'' (Red!, socialist party) * '' Libertair, Direct, Democratisch/LDD'' (Libertarian, Direct, Democratic)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Political Parties In Belgium

Political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...