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2009 European Parliament election in Belgium

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European Parliament election in Belgium, 2009
← 2004 7 June 2009 2014 →
22 seats to the European Parliament
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Jean-Luc Dehaene Guy Verhofstadt Jean-Claude Marcourt
Party CD&V Open Vld PS
Alliance EPP ALDE PES
Last election 4 seats, 17.43% 3 seats, 13.56% 4 seats, 13.54%
Seats won 3 3 2
Seat change Decrease 1 Steady Decrease 1
Popular vote 948,123 837,884 714,947
Percentage 14.43% 12.75% 10.88%
Swing Increase 3.00% Decrease 0.81% Decrease 2.66%
  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader Frank Vanhecke Louis Michel
Party Flemish Interest MR
Alliance ALDE
Last election 3 seats, 14.43% 3 seats, 10.35%
Seats won 2 2
Seat change Decrease 1 Decrease 1
Popular vote 647,170 640,092
Percentage 9.85% 9.74%
Swing Decrease 4.49% Decrease 0.61%
Members of the
European Parliament
for Belgium
ECSC delegation (1952)
Delegation (1958)
1st term (1979)
2nd term (1984)
3rd term (1989)
4th term (1994)
5th term (1999)
6th term (2004)
7th term (2009)
8th term (2014)
9th term (2019)
10th term (2024)
Women

The European Parliament election of 2009 in Belgium was on Sunday 7 June 2009 and was the election of the delegation from Belgium to the European Parliament. The elections were on the same day as regional elections to the Flemish Parliament, Walloon Parliament, Brussels Parliament and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community.[1]

As a result of the Treaty of Nice – that became active in November 2004 – the number of Belgian delegates in the European Parliament decreased from 24 (in 2004) to 22 delegates: 13 delegates were elected by the Dutch-speaking Electoral College, 8 delegates by the Francophone Electoral College and 1 by the German-speaking Electoral College.

Results

Summary of the complete results of Belgium's 7 June 2009 election to the European Parliament
← 2004 2009 2014 →
National party European party Main candidate Electoral college Votes % +/– E.c. % Seats +/–
style="background-color: Template:Christian Democratic and Flemish/meta/color" width=5px| Christian Democratic & Flemish (CD&V) EPP Jean-Luc Dehaene Dutch-speaking 948,123 14.43 * 23.26 3 *
style="background-color: Template:Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats/meta/color" width=5px| Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (OPEN VLD) ELDR Guy Verhofstadt Dutch-speaking 837,884 12.75 * 20.56 3 *
style="background-color: Template:Socialist Party (francophone Belgium)/meta/color" width=5px| Socialist Party (PS) PES Jean-Claude Marcourt French-speaking 714,947 10.88 2.66 Decrease 29.10 3 1 Decrease
style="background-color: Template:Flemish Interest/meta/color" width=5px| Flemish Interest (VB) None Frank Vanhecke Dutch-speaking 647,170 9.85 4.49 Decrease 15.88 2 1 Decrease
style="background-color: Template:Reformist Movement/meta/color" width=5px| Reformist Movement (MR) ELDR Louis Michel French-speaking 640,092 9.74 0.61 Decrease 26.05 2 1 Decrease
style="background-color: Template:Ecolo/meta/color" width=5px| Ecology Party (ECOLO) EGP Isabelle Durant French-speaking 562,081 8.55 4.86 Increase 22.88 2 1 Increase
style="background-color: Template:Socialist Party Differently/meta/color" width=5px| Socialist Party – Differently (SP.A) PES Kathleen Van Brempt Dutch-speaking 539,393 8.21 * 13.23 2 *
style="background-color: Template:New Flemish Alliance/meta/color" width=5px| New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) EFA Frieda Brepoels Dutch-speaking 402,545 6.13 * 9.88 1 *
style="background-color: Template:Humanist Democratic Centre/meta/color" width=5px| Humanist Democratic Centre (CDH) EPP Anne Delvaux French-speaking 327,824 4.99 0.69 Decrease 13.34 1 0 Steady
style="background-color: Template:Green!/meta/color" width=5px| Green! (GROEN!) EGP Bart Staes Dutch-speaking 322,149 4.90 0.04 Decrease 7.90 1 0 Steady
style="background-color: Template:List Dedecker/meta/color" width=5px| List Dedecker (LDD) AECR Jean-Marie Dedecker Dutch-speaking 296,699 4.51 new 7.28 1 0 Steady
style="background-color: Template:Christian Social Party (Belgium)/meta/color" width=5px| Christian Social Party (CSP) EPP Mathieu Grosch German-speaking 12,475 0.19 0.05 Decrease 32.25 1 0 Steady
  National Front (FN) None Jean-Pierre Borbouse French-speaking 87,706 1.33 1.46 Decrease 3.57 0 0 Steady
  Workers' Party+ (PVDA+) None Peter Mertens Dutch-speaking 40,057 0.61 0.23 Increase 0.98 0 0 Steady
Wallonia First (WDB) None Christian Haudegand French-speaking 37,505 0.57 new 1.53 0 0 Steady
  Rally Wallonia France (RWF) None Paul-Henry Gendebien French-speaking 30,488 0.46 0.11 Increase 1.24 0 0 Steady
  Workers' Party+ (PTB+) None Raoul Hedebouw French-speaking 28,483 0.43 0.13 Increase 1.16 0 0 Steady
  Social Liberal Party (SLP) EFA Nelly Maes Dutch-speaking 26,541 0.40 * 0.65 0 0 Steady
  Left Socialist Party (LSP) None Bart Vandersteene Dutch-speaking 8,985 0.14 0.08 Decrease 0.22 0 0 Steady
Revolutionary Communist League (LCR-PSL) None Céline Caudron French-speaking 7,954 0.12 — 0.32 0 0 Steady
  Party for Freedom and Progress (PFF) ELDR Bernd Gentges German-speaking 7,878 0.12 0.01 Decrease 20.37 0 0 Steady
  Committee for Another Policy (CAP) + D'Orazio None Ezio D'Orazio French-speaking 7,626 0.12 — 0.31 0 0 Steady
  Communist Party (PC-GE) PEL Pierre Eyben French-speaking 7,533 0.11 — 0.31 0 0 Steady
  Committee for Another Policy (CAP) None Raf Verbeke Dutch-speaking 6,398 0.10 new 0.16 0 0 Steady
  Ecology Party (ECOLO) EGP Claudia Niessen German-speaking 6,025 0.09 0.03 Increase 15.58 0 0 Steady
  Socialist Party (SP) PES Resi Stoffels German-speaking 5,658 0.09 0.00 Steady 14.63 0 0 Steady
  Socialist Movement (MS) None Francis Biesmans French-speaking 4,939 0.08 — 0.20 0 0 Steady
  Pro German-speaking Community (PRO DG) None Harald Mollers German-speaking 3,897 0.06 0.01 Increase 10.07 0 0 Steady
  Vivant (VIVANT) None Josef Meyer German-speaking 2,417 0.04 — 6.25 0 0 Steady
Europe of Values (EDW) None Myrianne Coen German-speaking 330 0.01 new 0.85 0 0 Steady
Valid votes 6,571,802 93.69
Blank and invalid votes 442,613 6.31
Totals 7,014,415 100.00 — — 22 2 Decrease
Electorate (eligible voters) and voter turnout 7,760,436 90.39
Source: Belgian Ministry of the Interior

Candidates

Dutch-speaking electoral college

Flemish Interest
Place Name Party # of votes
1 Frank Vanhecke VB 161,371
2 Marijke Dillen VB 43,974
3 Philip Claeys VB 27,763
4 Linda Vissers VB 30,167
5 Francis Van den Eynde VB 25,598
6 Johan Demol VB 32,600
7 Alexandra Colen VB 27,686
8 Gerda Van Steenberge VB 22,751
9 Bart Laeremans VB 24,592
10 Bruno Valkeniers VB 33,322
11 Anke Van dermeersch VB 41,049
12 Filip Dewinter VB 150,584
13 Marie-Rose Morel VB 108,629
Green!
Place Name Party # of votes
1 Bart Staes GROEN! 97,036
2 Joke Van de Putte GROEN! 28,556
3 Meyrem Almaci GROEN! 28,806
4 Hugo van Dienderen GROEN! 10,049
5 Maarten Tavernier GROEN! 11,331
6 Rik Jellema GROEN! 7,442
7 Sara Matthieu GROEN! 18,248
8 Francine De Prins GROEN! 12,230
9 Inan Asliyüce GROEN! 11,763
10 Philippe Avijn GROEN! 6,870
11 Tom Kestens GROEN! 9,866
12 Tinne Van der Straeten GROEN! 19,116
13 Vera Dua GROEN! 39,725
List Dedecker
Place Name Party # of votes
1 Jean-Marie Dedecker LDD 149,768
2 Moniek Denhaen LDD 10,629
3 Derk Jan Eppink LDD 13,898
4 Kristof Van Der Cruysse LDD 7,405
5 Isabelle Van Laethem LDD 9,785
New Flemish Alliance
Place Name Party # of votes
1 Frieda Brepoels N-VA 67,717
2 Flor Van Noppen N-VA 27,788
3 Elke Sleurs N-VA 19,575
4 Louis Ide N-VA 16,382
5 Hil D'Haese N-VA 11,585
Socialist Party–Differently
Place Name Party # of votes
1 Kathleen Van Brempt SP.A 146,992
2 Saïd El Khadraoui SP.A 50,408
3 Anne Van Lancker SP.A 47,415
4 Selahattin Kocak SP.A 33,444
5 Tom Germonpré SP.A 19,173
6 Tom Balthazar SP.A 21,864
7 Laila El Abouzi SP.A 25,694
8 Myriam Vanlerberghe SP.A 25,683
9 Ludwig Vandenhove SP.A 22,781
10 Sener Ugurlu SP.A 23,333
11 Dalila Douifi SP.A 20,748
12 Christine Van Broeckhoven SP.A 28,490
13 Bert Anciaux SP.A 71,919

Linguistic controversy

Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency

Generally in Belgium, residents of Flanders can only vote for a party list that runs in Flanders, and in Wallonia residents may only pick a Walloon list. In practice this means residents will only be able to vote for a party representing the official language group of the region. (French-speakers in Flanders have, however, joined up in the cross-party Union des Francophones with one seat in the Flemish Parliament).

In the capital Brussels, which is officially bilingual, people can choose either a French- or a Dutch-speaking party list. However, the area surrounding Brussels is part of Dutch-speaking Flanders, but is joined with the Brussels constituency in elections for the European Parliament and the Belgian Parliament. This bilingual constituency, Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, has been declared unconstitutional and has been a source of controversy for years. Flemings fear the bilingual constituency leads to increased francisation of the Dutch-speaking area surrounding Brussels, while French-speakers claim it is their basic right to vote for a French-speaking party. Some Dutch-speaking municipalities decided to boycott the EU Parliament election for reason of the unconstitutionality,[2] but elections were carried out anyway.

As in previous elections, Francophone parties campaigned outside of the Francophone area, leading to measures from Flemish authorities. Affligem and Halle are located in Dutch-speaking Flanders (although a substantial minority of Francophones also live there) but belong to the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency. Politicians in Affligem and Halle have objected to French-speaking campaigners in Flanders, and billboard space has been denied by the municipal authorities. In Affligem, French-language posters that had already been put up were covered with white paper. The Francophone party Humanist Democratic Centre has condemned it as an attack on "the fundamental rights of French speakers on the periphery [of Brussels]".[2][3]

The municipalities of Merchtem, Beersel, Kapelle-op-den-Bos, Machelen, Ternat, Meise, and Grimbergen also said that they would not provide billboard space, in the hope of avoiding French-language posters. In Steenokkerzeel, Ternat, and Grimbergen stickers were distributed, to be placed on mailboxes, requesting that only Dutch flyers are accepted.[3]

References

  1. ^ http://www.eurotopics.net/en/presseschau/aeltere/NEWSLETTER-2009-02-18-Belgian-state-reform-fails[permanent dead link‍]
  2. ^ a b "Language rift in Belgian election". BBC News. 6 May 2009. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
  3. ^ a b "Belgian linguistic feud intensifies as elections draw near". EurActiv.com. 5 May 2009. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
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