The composition of the new Belgian Senate was published on Wednesday morning. The Flemish nationalist party N-VA is the largest party in the new Senate with 10 of the 60 senators. The far-right party Vlaams Belang and the Francophone liberal party MR are the joint-second largest parties with 8 senators each. The Flemish socialist party Vooruit has kept its promise not to co-opt a senator.
The Belgian Senate is composed of 50 senators appointed by the regional and language community parliaments and 10 co-opted senators appointed by the various parties based on their results in the federal elections.
With 10 senators (appointed and co-opted) the Flemish nationalist party N-VA will form the largest group in the Senate. Vlaams Belang and MR both have 8 senators, the Francophone socialists and the far-left PVDA-PTB have 6 senators each. The Francophone Christian democrates (Les Engagés), the Flemish socialists (Vooruit) and the Flemish Christian democrats (CD&V) have 5 senators. The Flemish liberals have 3 senators, the Flemish greens 2 senators and the Francophone green 1. There is also one German-speaking Senator that is appointed by the parliament of the German Language Community.
Vooruit hasn’t co-opted a Senator
With regard to co-opted senators, N-VA has been able to appoint appoint 2, while and Vlaams Belang, MR, PS, Les Engagés, Vooruit, CD&V and Open VLD 1 are able to appoint one each. PVDA/PTB may also co-opt 1 senator, based on the party’s election result in Francophone Belgium.
During the election campaign, the Vooruit figurehead Conner Rousseau said his party would not co-opt a senator if it were entitled to do so. On Monday, the Flemish Socialists' party executive confirmed this.
"Everyone has been claiming for years that they want to abolish the Senate, but it never happens. If no party co-opted anyone, the Senate would be abolished de facto. We are setting an example. If the others also mean what they say, they won't send anyone either,’ a Flemish socialist party spokesman told journalists.
Vooruit’s refusal to co-opt a Senator means that at least 1 of the 60 seats in the Belgian Senate will remain empty.