2010 Belgian federal election

Following a continued lack of agreement over how to resolve the conflict over the electoral arrondissement of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, the liberal Open VLD left the government on 22 April 2010, continuing the 2007–2011 Belgian political crisis. Prime Minister Yves Leterme (Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams, CD&V) immediately offered his resignation to King Albert II, who accepted it on 26 April 2010. Following the elections held on 13 June, there were fears that coalition-building may take so long that Belgium's presidency of the Council of the European Union, which starts on 1 July 2010, might have to start under a caretaker government.^[5][6][7]

According to a statement by the Flemish President of the Constitutional Court, Marc Bossuyt, the elections might be ruled unconstitutional unless the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde arrondissement is split up beforehand.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} On 4 May, all but one Flemish judge-president of the 13 Flemish Courts of First Instance wrote a collective letter, saying that the elections cannot be held with the current electoral districts and that a return to the previous electoral arrondissements is necessary.^[13] In contrast, Ghislain Londers, the president of the Court of Cassation declared that all judges are obliged to cooperate with the electoral process. Before the judges' letters, former president of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives Herman De Croo stated that no court could prevent the elections from taking place.^[12]

The international media saw the election as crucial to determine the future of the country, even though it was admitted that devolution would not happen immediately.^[14]

The parliament was dissolved by Declaration of Revision of the Constitution on 7 May 2010 and elections were called by royal order of the same day.^[15] The period with rules and limits on campaign spending (sperperiode), which normally runs three months prior to election day, started that day.

Voting occurred on Sunday 13 June 2010 between 08:00 and 13:00 in polling stations with paper ballots, and between 08:00 and 15:00 in those with electronic voting.

The newly elected parliament was to convene on 6 July 2010.

These Flemish parties field candidates in the regions of Flanders and the partially bilingual electoral district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.

• New Flemish Alliance (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA) – centre-right political party, seeking secession of Flanders.
• Christian Democratic and Flemish (Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams, CD&V) – Christian democratic party with historic ties to both trade unionism and corporative organizations.
• Socialist Party – Differently (Socialistische Partij – Anders, sp.a) – social-democratic party.
• Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten, open-VLD) – liberal party.
• Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang) – seeking the independence of Flanders and strict limits on immigration.
• Green! (Groen!) – green political party.
• List Dedecker (Lijst Dedecker) – conservative-liberal party.

These Francophone parties fielded candidates in the region of Wallonia and in the electoral district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.

• Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste, PS) – social-democratic party.
• Reformist Movement (Mouvement Réformateur , MR) – liberal party.
• Humanist Democratic Centre (Centre Démocrate Humaniste, CDH) – Christian democratic party.
• Ecolo – green political party.
• People's Party (Parti Populaire) – conservative-liberal party.

Leterme stepped aside on 28 April 2010 and was replaced as leader of CD&V by Marianne Thyssen.^[16]

Notable newcomers in politics:

• Rik Torfs, former canon law professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, was on the Senate list for CD&V.
• Siegfried Bracke, former political analyst at the Flemish public broadcaster VRT was first on the Chamber list in East Flanders for N-VA.
• Eva Brems, human rights professor at Ghent University and former president of the Flemish division of Amnesty International. She was head of the Chamber list in Flemish Brabant for Groen!.^[17]

As of May 26, it appeared that the major development in the election was the surge in popularity of the N-VA in Flanders. Led by Bart De Wever, it supports eventual independence for Flanders, and an immediate switch from a federal Belgium to a confederal Belgium. The N-VA replaces the CD&V of outgoing PM Yves Leterme as the most popular party in Flanders. This development opens the question of how the francophone parties might react to forming a government with an openly sovereigntist, but politically centrist party if they do win a plurality of votes in Flanders. It appeared that the N-VA had attracted some popularity from the ethnic nationalist party, Vlaams Belang.^[18]

After polls showed the N-VA receiving 29% of votes in their region, media interpreted the election as a "victory for Flemish independence".^[25] The following tables contain percentages on the national level (i.e. the result of N-VA is 17.4% on the national level, while it is 27.8% on the regional level).

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	New Flemish Alliance	1,135,617	17.40	N/A	27	+22
	Parti Socialiste	894,543	13.70	+2.84	26	+6
	Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams	707,986	10.85	N/A	17	–8
	Mouvement Réformateur	605,617	9.28	–3.24	18	–5
	Socialistische Partij Anders	602,867	9.24	N/A	13	–1
	Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten	563,873	8.64	–3.19	13	–5
	Vlaams Belang	506,697	7.76	–4.23	12	–5
	Centre démocrate humaniste	360,441	5.52	–0.53	9	–1
	Ecolo	313,047	4.80	–0.31	8	0
	Groen!	285,989	4.38	+0.40	5	+1
	Lijst Dedecker	150,577	2.31	–1.72	1	–4
	Workers' Party of Belgium	101,088	1.55	+0.70	0	0
	People's Party	84,005	1.29	New	1	New
	Wallonie d'Abord	36,642	0.56	New	0	New
	Rassemblement Wallonie France	35,743	0.55	+0.15	0	0
	National Front	33,591	0.51	–1.45	0	–1
	Front des gauches	20,734	0.32	New	0	New
	BELG.UNIE	20,665	0.32	New	0	New
	Front National+	11,553	0.18	New	0	New
	Pro Bruxsel	7,201	0.11	New	0	New
	Left Socialist Party	6,791	0.10	New	0	New
	Parti Pensionné PP	6,688	0.10	New	0	New
	Vivant	6,211	0.10	+0.01	0	0
	Wallon+	5,857	0.09	New	0	New
	EGALITE	5,670	0.09	New	0	New
	RESPECT	5,630	0.09	New	0	New
	Mouvement socialiste plus	2,827	0.04	New	0	New
	MP Éducation	2,572	0.04	+0.02	0	0
	Vital	2,259	0.03	+0.01	0	0
	Pirate Party	2,200	0.03	New	0	New
	Vrijheid	1,576	0.02	New	0	New
	N	610	0.01	New	0	New
Total		6,527,367	100.00	–	150	0
Valid votes		6,527,367	94.19
Invalid/blank votes		402,488	5.81
Total votes		6,929,855	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,767,552	89.22
Source: IBZ

Region		Seats won per party							Total seats
	Constituency	N-VA	CD&V	SP.A	VLD	VB	GROEN!	LDD
Flanders	Antwerp	8 / 24	4 / 24	3 / 24	3 / 24	4 / 24	2 / 24	—	24 / 88
	B.H.V.	3 / 9	2 / 9	1 / 9	2 / 9	1 / 9	—	—	9 / 88
	East Flanders	6 / 20	3 / 20	3 / 20	4 / 20	3 / 20	1 / 20	—	20 / 88
	Leuven	2 / 7	1 / 7	1 / 7	1 / 7	1 / 7	1 / 7	—	7 / 88
	Limburg	4 / 12	3 / 12	2 / 12	1 / 12	2 / 12	—	—	12 / 88
	West Flanders	4 / 16	4 / 16	3 / 16	2 / 16	1 / 16	1 / 16	1 / 16	16 / 88
Total		27 / 88	17 / 88	13 / 88	13 / 88	12 / 88	5 / 88	1 / 88	88 / 88
		PS	MR	CDH	ECOLO	PP
Wallonia	B.H.V.	4 / 13	5 / 13	2 / 13	2 / 13	—			13 / 62
	Hainaut	11 / 19	4 / 19	2 / 19	2 / 19	—			19 / 62
	Liège	7 / 15	4 / 15	2 / 15	2 / 15	—			15 / 62
	Luxembourg	1 / 4	1 / 4	2 / 4	—	—			4 / 62
	Namur	2 / 6	2 / 6	1 / 6	1 / 6	—			6 / 62
	Walloon Brabant	1 / 5	2 / 5	—	1 / 5	1 / 5			5 / 62
Total		26 / 62	18 / 62	9 / 62	8 / 62	1 / 62			62 / 62

Party		Votes	%	+/–	Seats	+/–
	New Flemish Alliance	1,268,780	19.61	N/A	9	+8
	Parti Socialiste	880,828	13.62	+3.37	7	+3
	Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams	646,375	9.99	N/A	4	–4
	Socialistische Partij Anders	613,079	9.48	N/A	4	0
	Mouvement Réformateur	599,618	9.27	–3.04	4	–2
	Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten	533,124	8.24	–4.16	4	–1
	Vlaams Belang	491,547	7.60	–4.29	3	–2
	Ecolo	353,111	5.46	–0.36	2	0
	Centre démocrate humaniste	331,870	5.13	–0.77	2	0
	Groen!	251,546	3.89	+0.25	1	0
	Lijst Dedecker	130,779	2.02	–1.36	0	–1
	Workers' Party of Belgium	105,060	1.62	+0.80	0	0
	People's Party	98,858	1.53	New	0	New
	Wallonie d'Abord	62,251	0.96	New	0	New
	Rassemblement Wallonie France	40,393	0.62	+0.14	0	0
	Front des gauches	28,346	0.44	New	0	New
	Vivant	15,462	0.24	New	0	New
	Left Socialist Party	7,841	0.12	New	0	New
	Committee for Another Policy	6,254	0.10	–0.10	0	0
	Mouvement socialiste plus	3,981	0.06	New	0	New
Total		6,469,103	100.00	–	40	0
Valid votes		6,469,103	93.36
Invalid/blank votes		460,375	6.64
Total votes		6,929,478	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		7,767,552	89.21
Source: IBZ

These maps depict the largest party in each constituency.

Legend:

•   N-VA
•   CD&V
•   sp.a
•   Open Vld
•   MR

Legend:

•   PS
•   MR
•   cdH

Candidates receiving the highest number of preferential votes.

On possible coalitions, election winner Bart De Wever announced he would seek negotiations with the Francophone Socialist Party.^[28] The Socialist Party leader Elio di Rupo was tapped to become the next Prime Minister, because the socialist parties emerged as the largest "party family" in the elections, and because the New Flemish Alliance lacks a Francophone counterpart.^[29][30][31]

Philip Blenkinsop of Reuters stated that the win of the New Flemish Alliance could have negative effects because "Belgium can ill afford drawn-out coalition talks because it has a large debt and any policy paralysis could make the country vulnerable on financial markets that are closely watching a sovereign debt crisis."^[32]

Coalition formation continued for a record-breaking 541 days, with a government under Elio Di Rupo eventually being formed on 6 December 2011 after agreement was reached on the 2012 budget. The Di Rupo I Government included the Liberal, Socialist and Christian Democratic parties from both Flanders and Wallonia. The government excludes the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the Greens of Groen and Ecolo, Vlaams Belang on the right, the Lijst Dedecker and the People's Party. N-VA's absence, together with the unwillingness of Open Vld to enter into an eight-party coalition that included the green parties, meant the government coalition lacked a majority in the Dutch language group. It was the first time that the Belgian prime minister has been openly gay and the world's first male openly gay head of government^[33] Belgium was thus the second European country to have a homosexual prime minister, after Iceland (Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir). Elio Di Rupo was the first native French-speaking prime minister since 1979 and the first Walloon prime minister since 1974.

• Tractothèque - Electoral posters and leaflets
• NSD: European Election Database - Belgium Archived 2010-08-12 at the Wayback Machine publishes regional level election data; allows for comparisons of election results, 1991–2010