Regional elections were held in Belgium on 25 May 2014 to choose representatives for the Flemish Parliament, Walloon Parliament, Brussels Parliament and the Parliament of the German-speaking Community. These elections were held on the same day as the 2014 European elections as well as the 2014 Belgian federal election.

The Parliament of the French Community is composed of all elected members of the Walloon Parliament (except German-speaking members) and 19 of the French-speaking members of the Brussels Parliament.

Flemish Parliament

2014 Flemish parliamentary election

← 2009 25 May 2014 (2014-05-25) 2019 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 124 seats in the Flemish Parliament 63 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	92.67%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Liesbeth Homans Kris Peeters Gwendolyn Rutten Party N-VA CD&V Open Vld Leader's seat Antwerp did not stand did not stand Last election 16 seats, 13.06% 31 seats, 22.86% 21 seats, 14.99% Seats won 43 27 19 Seat change 27 4 2 Popular vote 1,339,946 860,694 594,469 Percentage 31.88% 20.48% 14.15% Swing 18.83 2.37 0.85   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Bruno Tobback Wouter Van Besien Guy D'haeseleer Party sp.a Groen VB Leader's seat Flemish Brabant Antwerp East Flanders Last election 19 seats, 15.27% 7 seats, 6.77% 21 seats, 15.28% Seats won 18 10 6 Seat change 1 3 15 Popular vote 587,903 365,781 248,840 Percentage 13.99% 8.7% 5.92% Swing 1.28 1.94 9.36
Flemish Government before election Peeters II Government CD&V–sp.a–N-VA coalition Elected Flemish Government Bourgeois Government N-VA–CD&V–Open Vld coalition

All 124 members of the Flemish Parliament were elected. The five Flemish Region provinces (West Flanders, East Flanders, Antwerp, Flemish Brabant and Limburg) each are a constituency, plus the Brussels-Capital Region where those voting for a Dutch-language party can also vote in the Flemish election.

The incumbent Peeters II Government was made up of a coalition of CD&V, N-VA and sp.a. Minister-President Kris Peeters (CD&V) consistently polled as one of the most popular politicians in Flanders. He is a candidate to succeed himself as Minister-President. Other parties did not put forward an explicit candidate to be Minister-President.

Since the elections coincide with the federal elections, a lot of the campaigning and debates have been about federal matters. Nonetheless, the sixth state reform has transferred a lot of powers from the federal state to the regional level, such as child benefits.

Other major election topics include the reform of the secondary education, and mobility around Antwerp, in particular the Oosterweel Link.

Opinion polls

Date	Polling Firm		VB						Others	Lead
25 May 2014	Flemish Elections	20.5	5.9	14.0	14.2	31.9	8.7	2.5	2.3	11.4
16 May	De Standaard	20.0	8.4	14.4	13.1	31.8	9.5	2.6	0.2	11.8
25 Apr	De Standaard	20.0	6.7	14.5	12.7	33.2	9.1	1.7	2.1	13.2
23 Apr	Le Soir	17.6	10.3	13.5	13.5	32.8	8.7	3.4	0.2	15.2
15 Apr	La Libre Belgique	16.9	9.9	13.6	13.5	32.9	7.6	4.1	1.5	16.0
21 Feb	La Libre Belgique	17.6	9.8	14.6	12.8	32.3	7.3	3.7	1.9	14.7
13 Feb	Le Soir	18.5	7.6	13.3	13.3	32.3	8.4	2.7	3.9	13.8
2014
24 Nov	La Libre Belgique	17.9	9.9	14.1	12.4	30.8	8.0	2.0	4.9	12.9
21 Nov	Le Soir	17.4	9.6	13.1	14.4	31.2	8.9	3.0	2.4	13.8
2 Sep	La Libre Belgique	17.3	11.3	12.0	11.8	35.5	6.9	1.5	3.7	18.2
16 Jun	Le Soir	15.7	9.4	13.9	13.2	35.0	7.7	-	5.1	19.3
25 May	La Libre Belgique	15.9	12.9	14.1	12.9	32.8	6.5	2.5	2.4	16.9
25 May	De Standaard	17.4	10.6	14.7	10.1	32.1	9.5	2.5	3.1	14.7
24 Mar	Le Soir	16.7	10.5	13.6	12.3	33.6	7.7	2.8	2.8	16.9
16 Mar	Het Laatste Nieuws	15.1	11.3	14.7	12.1	33.8	8.4	-	4.6	18.7
22 Feb	La Libre Belgique	14.1	6.8	14.9	10.0	39.0	8.7	2.4	4.1	24.1
2013
30 Nov	La Libre Belgique	16.5	10.7	14.4	9.6	35.4	8.0	3.6	1.8	18.9
14 Oct 2012	Provincial elections	21.4	8.9	13.6	14.6	28.5	8.3	2.1	2.5	7.1
14 Sep	De Standaard	18.5	9.5	14.5	10.7	36.3	7.9	-	2.6	17.8
5 Sep	La Libre Belgique	13.4	10.0	13.5	11.6	40.1	7.5	2.7	1.2	26.6
2012
2 Dec	La Libre Belgique	12.6	8.4	13.9	12.6	39.8	7.5	-	5.2	25.9
2011
10 Jun 2010	Federal Elections	17.6	12.6	15.0	14.0	28.2	7.1	1.3	4.1	10.6
2 Apr	De Standaard	22.2	14.0	15.9	17.6	14.8	8.1	-	7.4	4.6
2010
9 Oct	De Standaard	24.4	12.8	15.0	16.7	13.5	8.5	-	9.1	7.7
7 Jun 2009	Flemish Elections	22.9	15.3	15.3	15.0	13.1	6.8	1.0	10.7	7.6

Main candidates

National party		Antwerp	East Flanders	Flemish Brabant	Limburg	West Flanders	Brussels
Major parties
	Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V)	Kris Peeters	Joke Schauvliege	Peter Van Rompuy	Jo Vandeurzen	Hilde Crevits	Bianca Debaets
	Green (Groen)	Wouter Van Besien	Elisabeth Meuleman	Hermes Sanctorum	Johan Danen	Bart Caron	Elke Van den Brandt
	New Flemish Alliance (N-VA)	Liesbeth Homans	Matthias Diependaele	Ben Weyts	Jan Peumans	Geert Bourgeois	Karl Vanlouwe
	Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open Vld)	Bart Somers	Mathias De Clercq	Gwendolyn Rutten	Marino Keulen	Bart Tommelein	Ann Brusseel
	Socialist Party–Differently (sp.a)	Caroline Gennez	Freya Van den Bossche	Bruno Tobback	Ingrid Lieten	John Crombez	Yamila Idrissi
	Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang)	Anke Van dermeersch	Guy D'haeseleer	Joris Van Hauthem	Chris Janssens	Stefaan Sintobin	Frédéric Erens
Minor parties
	Workers' Party (PVDA+)	Jos D'Haese	Dirk Goemaere	Line De Witte	Gaby Colebunders	Bart Desmedt	—
	Pirate Party	Kjell Segers	Sarah Van Liefferinge	David Knapen	—	Jonas Degrave	—

Results

The winner is by far the N-VA, especially compared to the 2009 regional elections but also to the 2010 federal elections. Groen also gained votes, whereas CD&V, sp.a, Open Vld and especially Vlaams Belang lost votes. LDD did not compete and is no longer in parliament.

The Union of Francophones (UF) narrowly reached the 5% election threshold in Flemish Brabant, thereby keeping their only seat.

The incumbent government parties N-VA, CD&V and sp.a would have a large majority; it was however not expected that sp.a and N-VA will be together in a coalition.

Initially, N-VA and CD&V were negotiating to form a Flemish Government. However, since Open Vld was needed for a federal coalition and they wanted to be in both or neither governments, they joined the Flemish negotiations. On 25 July 2014, the new Bourgeois Government was sworn in, led by Minister-President Geert Bourgeois (N-VA). Outgoing Minister-President Kris Peeters (CD&V) became minister in the federal Michel Government.

In detail

The candidate receiving the most preference votes was Liesbeth Homans (N-VA) in Antwerp, with 159,965 votes, ahead of Kris Peeters (CD&V).

The highest percentage of votes in a municipality (apart from the French-speaking list in the Brussels Periphery) was achieved by N-VA in Schilde (near Antwerp city) with 51,27% of the votes.

Walloon Parliament

2014 Walloon parliamentary election

← 2009 25 May 2014 (2014-05-25) 2019 →
All 75 seats in the Walloon Parliament 38 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	87.67%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Rudy Demotte Willy Borsus André Antoine Party PS MR cdH Leader's seat did not stand did not stand Nivelles Last election 29 seats, 32.77% 19 seats, 23.41% 13 seats, 16.14% Seats won 30 25 13 Seat change 1 6 Popular vote 631,216 545,112 310,012 Percentage 30.90% 26.69% 15.18% Swing 1.87 3.28 0.96   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Philippe Henry Party Ecolo PVDA-PTB PP Leader's seat Liège Last election 14 seats, 18.54% 0 seats, 1.24% New party Seats won 4 2 1 Seat change 10 2 New party Popular vote 176,026 117,500 99,237 Percentage 8.62% 5.75% 4.86% Swing 9.92 4.51 New party
Walloon Government before election Demotte II Government PS–cdH–Ecolo coalition Elected Walloon Government Magnette Government PS–cdH coalition

All 75 members of the Walloon Regional Parliament were elected. The elections took place in 13 electoral districts.

The incumbent Demotte II Government, led by Rudy Demotte, is a coalition of the Socialist Party (PS), the Humanist Democratic Centre (cdH) and Ecolo. The Reformist Movement (MR) was the only opposition party.

Opinion polls

Results

PS, cdH, Ecolo lost votes, whereas MR gained votes and PTB-GO! as well as Parti Populaire are new parties in parliament.

Within two weeks following the elections, the Socialist Party and the Humanist Democratic Centre started negotiations for a new government.

In detail

Brussels Parliament

2014 Brussels parliamentary election

← 2009 25 May 2014 (2014-05-25) 2019 →
All 89 seats in the Brussels Parliament 45 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	83.62%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Rudi Vervoort Vincent De Wolf Didier Gosuin Party PS MR FDF Last election 21 seats, 23.3% 24 seats, 26.5% New party Seats won 21 18 12 Seat change 6 New party Popular vote 108,763 94,243 60,611 Percentage 23.5% 20.3% 13.1% Swing 0.2% 6.2% 13.1%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Joëlle Milquet Christos Doulkeridis Guy Vanhengel Party cdH Ecolo Open Vld Last election 11 seats, 13.1% 16 seats, 17.9% 4 seats, 2.6% Seats won 9 8 5 Seat change 2 8 1 Popular vote 48,021 41,368 14,296 Percentage 10.3% 8.9% 3.1% Swing 2.8% 9.0% 0.5%
Brussels Government before election Vervoort I Government PS-Ecolo-cdH-VLD-CD&V-Groen! Elected Brussels Government Vervoort II Government PS-FDF-cdH-VLD-sp.a-CD&V

All 89 members of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region were elected. There are separate Dutch-language party lists and French-language party lists. Those voting for a Dutch-language party can also cast a vote for the Flemish Parliament election.

Opinion polls

Results

The French candidates receiving the most preference votes were Didier Gosuin (FDF, 22,906), Vincent De Wolf (MR, 19,919), Joëlle Milquet (cdH, 19,416), Charles Picqué (PS, 16,859) and Rudi Vervoort (PS, 16,742).

The Dutch candidate receiving the most preference votes was Guy Vanhengel (Open Vld, 7,375), significantly above the second one, Els Ampe (Open Vld, 2,883).

German-speaking Community Parliament

2014 German-speaking parliamentary election

← 2009 25 May 2014 (2014-05-25) 2019 →
All 25 seats in the Parliament of the German-speaking Community 13 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Robert Nelles Oliver Paasch Karl-Heinz Lambertz Party CSP ProDG PS   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Isabelle Weykmans Michael Balter Franziska Franzen Party MR Vivant Ecolo

All 25 members of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community were elected.

The incumbent government, led by Karl-Heinz Lambertz (SP), is a coalition of the Socialist Party (SP), the liberal Party for Freedom and Progress (PFF) and the regionalist ProDG. Only a few days after the elections, these parties agreed to continue their coalition government, but with Oliver Paasch (ProDG) as Minister-President since his party became bigger than SP.