The new party of the Flemish Alliance (N-VA) has won 25 seats in the Federal House of Representatives, 8 seats fewer than in the 2014 parliamentary elections, but continues to enjoy the single biggest share by any political party.
“We lost the election, this is clear, but we remain the biggest party in Flanders”, acknowledged Bart de Wever, President of the N-VA, late on Sunday.
The real gains are with Far-right Flemish separatist party VlaamsBelang (VB), who increased their share of the national vote from 5.9 percent in 2014 to 18.2 percent, thus becoming the second largest party in Flanders.
The Reform Movement (MR) party of outgoing Prime Minister Charles Michel remains the second largest political party in Wallonia.
“We are well aware of how important it is to show the sense of responsibility to ensure that we are mobilized to manage employment and deal with climate challenge, ” said Charles Michel on Sunday.
King Philippe of Belgium will start his consultations Monday morning to examine the conditions under which a federal government can be formed.
Due to the economic, social and administrative configuration of Belgium’s three regions, the linguistically divided country could take some time to form a federal coalition.
For this hybrid National and European election of May 26, around 8 million Belgian voters went to the polls to elect 150 members of the federal Parliament, 313 regional councillors and 21 MEPs.
