As always, Belgium registered the highest participation rate to the European elections with an electoral turnout of almost 90%. This is because all Belgian citizens over the age of 18 and residing in Belgium are automatically registered on the electoral rolls and are subject to compulsory voting.
Among the big winners of these elections, one finds the Vlaams Belang. Benefiting from a huge win in the northern region of Flanders, the far-right party jumps from 1 to 3 seats in the European Parliament.
On the French-speaking side, the Green party did very well, as they doubled their seats.
The results of the elections in Belgium will also allow a new party to find its way to the hemicycle. The far-left PTB indeed got one seat and will join the Left in the European Parliament (GUE-NGL).
The losers, grouping both Dutch and French-speaking parties, are the N-VA, the Open Vld, the MR and PS, each loosing one seat.
Finally, some parties succeeded in maintaining their seats: status quo, then, for the CD&V, cdH-CSP and sp.a.
Overall, it seems that Belgium will participate in the rise of populist and eurosceptic parties in the European Parliament, adding new MEPs on both extremes of the political spectrum: far right and far left.
