List of political parties in Belgium

Belgium is a federation 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 governments.

Almost all Belgian political parties are divided into linguistic groups, either Dutch-speaking parties (see also List of political parties in Flanders), Francophone parties or germanophone parties.

The Flemish parties operate in Flanders and in the Brussels-Capital Region. The Francophone parties operate in Wallonia and in the Brussels-Capital Region. There are also parties operating in the comparatively small German-speaking community.

Political parties are thus organised along community lines, especially for the three main communities. There are no representative parties active in both communities. Even in Brussels, all parties presenting candidates are either Flemish parties, or French-speaking. As such, the internal organisation of the political parties reflects the fundamentally dual nature of Belgian society.

There are no significant parties left who exist, or operate on a national, Belgian level.

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) and the Liberal Party (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.

Catholics/Christian Democrats

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

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 Jo Vandeurzen. MP and Brussels Alderman Joëlle Milquet 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 CD&V (Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams). In 2002, the PSC also changed its name to cdH (Centre démocrate humaniste).

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 Flanders, the NCD was founded by Johan Van Hecke and Karel Pinxten. In Wallonia, the MCC was founded by Gérard Deprez. Both parties soon joined the major liberal parties, respectively the VLD in Flanders and the MR in Wallonia.

ocialists/Social Democrats

The modern Belgian Socialist parties are issued of the Belgian Labour Party. They have lost much of their early Marxist 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. Johan Vande Lanotte is the current head of the Flemish Socialist Party and Elio Di Rupo is the current president of the Francophone Socialists. In general, the Walloon Socialists tend to concentrate on domestic issues. In the eighties, 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, 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, Charleroi, and Mons). The Flemish Socialists' support is less regionally concentrated. The Flemish Socialists changed their party's name to SP.a (Socialistische Partij anders) in 2002.

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 CAP. Within the SP.a, the SP.a-Rood, is trying to change the course of the party.

Liberals/Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Parties chiefly appeal to businesspeople, property owners, shopkeepers, and the self-employed, in general. In Anglosaxon terms Belgian liberals would be called "moderate conservatives", "fiscal conservatives" and "social liberals".

There are two Liberal parties, formed along linguistic lines: The Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD, Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten) who opened up their ranks to Volksunie and CD&V defectors some years ago, are currently the largest political force in Belgium. The VLD is currently headed by Bart Somers. The Reformist Movement (MR, Mouvement Réformateur) on the Francophone side is headed by Didier Reynders, currently Minister for Finances. The MR is a federation composed of the Christian-democratic split-off, MCC and the Brussels-based FDF which is particularly strong electorally in Brussels.

Recently, the Flemish liberal party faced several high-ranking elected officials breaking away in order to found new "right-liberal" parties: MEP Ward Beysen (Liberal Appeal), senator Leo Govaerts (Veilig Blauw), senator Hugo Coveliers (VLOTT), VLD board member Boudewijn Bouckaert (Cassadra vzw) and senator Jean-Marie Dedecker (List Dedecker).

Linguistic 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 recent elections the party has suffered severe setbacks. In October 2001 the party disintegrated. The left-liberal wing founded Spirit, now called FlemishProgressives, while the more traditional Flemish nationalist wing continued under the banner Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA). A year later, a number of prominent Spirit politicians left the party to join the VLD.

The Front Démocratique des Francophones (FDF) 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 affiliated with the Mouvement Réformateur, a liberal alliance party.

The Union des Francophones (UF) is an electoral list combining the major Belgian Francophone parties for the regional elections.

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!.

Nationalist

The foremost nationalist party in Belgium 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." 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.cite news
title=Court rules Vlaams Blok is racist
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3994867.stm
publisher=BBC News
date=2004-11-09
accessdate=2007-05-20] [cite news
title=Elections 07 — Vlaams Belang
publisher=VRT flandersnews.be
date=2007-05-03
quote=This meant the introduction of a 'cordon sanitaire' around the party excluding it from government at all levels. The cordon remains in place until today.
url=http://www.flanderninfo.be/cm/flandersnews.be/News/2.728/070503_VLBEL_Profile
accessdate=2007-05-20] 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. The party is the biggest single party of Belgium in terms number of votes cast.

In Wallonia, the Front National ("National Front") is the largest nationalist party, having a largely anti-immigrant agenda. Officially, it is a bilingual party, but in reality, it is a purely French-speaking group, although it does support Belgian federalism.

German community

The German speaking parties do not play an important role on federal level. The main German speaking parties are the CSP (Christian-democratic), the PFF (liberal), the SP (social-democratic) and PDB (regionalist).

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, 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.

The parties

Flemish

* "Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams/CD&V" (Christian-Democratic and Flemish) -- part of the cartel CD&V/N-VA.
* "Groen!" (Green!)
* "Lijst Dedecker/LDD" (List Dedecker)
* "Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie/N-VA" (New-Flemish Alliance) -- part of the cartel CD&V/N-VA.
* "Open VLD" -- an alliance of :*"Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten/VLD" (Flemish Liberals and Democrats):*"Liberaal Appèl Plus" (Liberal Appeal Plus):*"Vivant" (For Individual Freedom and Work in a New Future) (Bilingual party)
* "Socialistische Partij - Anders/SP.A" (Socialist Party – Different) -- part of the cartel SP.A-Spirit.
* "Spirit" -- part of the cartel SP.A-Spirit.:* "Vlaams ProgressievenVP" -- Flemish Progressives, (regionalist-) social-liberal (former SPIRIT)
* "Vlaams Belang/VB" (Flemish Interest) -- cartel partner of VLOTT.
* "VLOTT" -- cartel partner of Vlaams Belang.
* "Liberaal Appel Liberal Appeal" - Flemish right wing liberal party
* "Veilig Blauw Safe Blue" -- (Flemish right wing liberal party)

Francophone

* "Centre Démocrate Humaniste/CdH" (Humanist Democratic Centre)
* "Chrétiens Démocrates Francophones" Christian Democratic Francophone Party
* "Ecolo"
* "Mouvement Réformateur/MR" (Reformist Movement) -- an alliance of :*"Parti Réformateur Libéral/PRL" (Liberal Reformist Party):*"Mouvement des Citoyens pour le Changement/MCC" (Citizens' Movement for Change):*"Front Démocratique des Francophones/FDF" (Democratic Front of Francophones):*"Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt" -- Party for Liberty and Progress, member of Mouvement Réformateur
* "Front National/FN" (National Front)
* "Parti Socialiste/PS" (Socialist Party)
* "Club républicain wallon pour l'Indépendance, la Dignité et la Liberté de la Wallonie" -- A party fighting for the independence of Wallonia

German

* "Christlich Soziale Partei/CSP" (Christian Social Party)
* "Partei für Freiheit und Fortschritt/PFF" (Party for Freedom and Progress) -- part of the MR
* "Partei der deutschsprachigen Belgier/PDB" (Party of German-speaking Belgians)

Minor Parties

Bilingual

* "Belgian Union/BUB" (Belgische Unie/Union Belge)
* "Committee for Another Policy/CAP" (Comité voor een Andere Politiek/Comité pour une Autre Politique)
* "Front nouveau de Belgique" (FNB)
* "Internationaal Verzet - Résistance Internationale" -- International Resistance
* "Left Socialist Party/LSP" (Linkse Socialistische Partij) and "Movement for a Socialist Alternative/MAS" (Mouvement pour une Alternative Socialiste)
* "Humaniste Humanist Party"
* "Rassemblement Wallonie-France"
* "Revolutionary Communist League/LCR" (Ligue communiste révolutionnaire) and "Socialist Workers' Party/SAP" (Socialistische Arbeiders Partij)
* "Socialistische Arbeiderspartij/Parti Ouvrier Socialiste" -- Trotskyist Party
* "Workers' Party of Belgium/WPB" (Partij van de Arbeid van Belgium/Parti du Travail de Belgique)
* "International Workers' League" (Internationale Arbeidersliga/Ligue Internationale des Travailleurs)

Others

* "Communist Party (Flanders)" (Kommunistische Partij)
* "Communist Party (Wallonia)" (Parti Communiste)
* "NO (NEE)
* "Communist Party of Belgium" "(now defunct)"
* "Militan"
* "Natuurwetpartij" -- Natural Law Party
* "Nieuwe Christen Democratie" -- New Christian Democracy
* "SoLiDe, de Sociaal-Liberale Democraten" -- A Dutch-speaking social-liberal Belgian party
* "Cercle des Etudiants Socialistes" (ULB)
* "Moslim Democratische Partij" -- Muslim Democratic Party
* "Socialist Party of Islamic Solidarity"
* "Christen-Democratische Studenten" Christian-Democrats Students

"(Sources)" [ [http://www.politicalresources.net/belgium.htm Political Resources on the Net - Belgium I (Parties) ] ]

ee also

List of political parties

* Index of political parties to browse parties by name
* List of political parties to browse parties by country
* List of political parties by ideology to browse parties by name
* Membership of internationals to browse parties by membership of internationals

Belgian politics

* Liberalism in Belgium
* Politics of Flanders
* Politics of Wallonia

References