In Brussels the Francophone liberals and the Flemish greens were the big winners in Sunday regional elections. The Francophone liberal party MR increased its vote by 9.08 percentage points and took 25.95% of the votes in the Francophone electoral college. In the Dutch-language electoral college the Flemish green party Groen is the largest party taking 22.82% of the votes, 2.21 percentage points up on the previous regional elections in 2019. The big surprise of the evening was Team Fouad Ahidar. The party formed by the former Flemish socialist regional MP came second in the Dutch-language electoral college, taking 16.47% of the votes.
Brussels Parliament: Francophone liberals and Flemish greens largest parties in their respective electoral colleges
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In Brussels voters elect 89 regional MP, 17 of whom are Dutch-speakers and 72 of whom are Francophones. The regional MPs are elected in two electoral colleges, one for each of the capital’s two language communities.
After the election a majority must be found within each language group in order to form a regional government. The regional government is headed by a politician from the largest language group, de facto a Francophone. In addition to the First Minister, the Brussels regional government has 4 ministers (2 Francophones and 2 Dutch-speakers) and 3 secretaries of state (1 Dutch-speaker and 2 Francophones).
The Francophone parties
The liberal party MR was the big winner on Sunday increasing its share of the Francophone vote by more than 9 percentage points to 25.95%.
The socialist party PS was the second most popular party among Francophone voters in the capital taking 22.05% of the votes. This is around the same as 5 years ago.
In third place is the far-left party PTB on 20.92%, an increase of 7.45 percentage points on 2019. The Christian democrat party Les Engagés saw its vote increase by 3.1 percentage point and took 10.68% of the votes.
The green party Ecolo saw its vote almost halved to 9.85%. The Francophone federalist party Défi was down 5.7 percentage points, taking 8.11% of the votes cast in the Francophone electoral college.
Flemish parties
In the Dutch-language electoral college the big surprise was the strong performance by the new party formed just a few months ago by the former Flemish socialist Fouad Ahidar. Team Fouad Ahidar came second in the Dutch-language electoral college, taking 16.47% of the votes. It was an evening of celebration too for the Flemish greens. Unlike their Francophone counterparts they increased their share of the vote and remain the largest Flemish party in the Brussels regional parliament.
The Flemish nationalist party N-VA and the Flemish liberals both lost significantly in Sunday’s election. The liberals gained 11.91% of the vote, down 6.06 percentage points on 2019. N-VA gained 10.62% of the votes, down 5.17 percentage points on 2019.
The far-right Vlaams Belang saw its vote increase by 2.2 percentage points to 10.54%.
It was a bad day for the Flemish socialist party Vooruit. With 10.01%, the party is down 5.05 percentage points.
The far-left PVDA won 6,99% of the votes in the Dutch-language electoral college. The Flemish Christian democrats won 6.35% of the votes.