Federal and Regional Elections, 9 June 2024

On 9 June 2024 Belgian citizens took part in the European Union Parliamentary election, and the federal and regional elections. Belgium is a “double-layered” federal state, whose governance system consists of federal, regional and community parliaments. All levels of government operate as parallel systems but sometimes share responsibilities and jurisdiction (Senate n.d.). To be elected to one of the 150 seats in Parliament, political parties need to gain at least five per cent of the votes (Council of Europe n.d.). The election management body for federal and regional elections is the Service Public Fédéral Intériur (SPFI/IBZ n.d.a). 

Since 1989, a political agreement blocking parties with illiberal values from power has been in place, also called the ‘cordon sanitaire’. In the French-speaking Wallonia region, the far-right Flanders regional party Vlaams Belang was boycotted by the media on this basis (Joyner 2024). To get around the cordon sanitaire, Vlaams Belang spent more funding on social media campaigns than all the other parties – including to verbally harass a transgender MP, among others in the LGBTQ+ community (Cokelaere and Haeck 2024).

In January 2024 the OECD’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) conducted a needs assessment and mission report for the Belgian elections, in which they expressed a high level of trust in the electoral process. However, ODIHR added that Belgian authorities should review the funding regulations for political campaigns, especially those concerning social media which might have loopholes in transparency and spending requirements (OSCE 2024). Moreover, sexist attacks and stereotyping have a demonstrably damaging impact the careers of women candidates, who can be intimidated into silence and discouraged from taking on leadership roles in politics (Coffé 2024).

The National Crisis Center posted information about disinformation targeting electoral processes in 2024 (National Crisis Center n.d.). Belgian federal elections have faced challenges with mis- and disinformation online, in which the electoral system was criticized. However, this type of content was considerably less common in comparison to the EU Parliamentary election (Belga 2024). The rise of populism was nevertheless raised as a concern, as was an increasing risk of foreign interference (SOCRadar 2024).  

A longstanding political divide between the French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders regions remained in evidence after the election. The overall winner in the federal election was right-wing New Flemish Alliance, receiving 24 seats, which also got the most votes within Flanders. The social-liberal Reformist Movement (MR) received the most votes in Wallonia and shared second place with Vlaams Belang in the federal election (SPFI/IBZ n.d.b). 

Because of political polarization in Belgium, coalition-building is difficult. As of August 2024 a new government had not yet been installed (Burtin and Accardo 2024). Even though Vlaams Belang share the same amount of seats as the MR party, they were not invited to negotiations due to the cordon sanitaire (Shug 2024). The New Flemish Alliance said after the elections that their biggest priority would be autonomy for Flanders (Shug 2024). 

Although voting in Belgium is compulsory, turnout was 87.42 per cent, down 0.96% on 2019 when it was 88.38 per cent (International IDEA n.d.b). 12.5 per cent of eligible voters chose to abstain, the highest proportion in history (International IDEA 2024). Seats in the Chamber of Representatives are proportionally elected, and 42.7 per cent of elected candidates were women (IPU n.d.). Electronic voting is used in Belgium in some areas (International IDEA n.d.a), which increases the risk of cyberattacks (World Economic Forum 2024). However, there were no reported digital incidents in 2024’s elections.