Elections 2024: After the vote, the formation of Belgium's governments begins

As expected, the extreme parties in Belgium were successful in the elections, but not to the extent that forming new governments will be nearly impossible. On Monday, the process of formation of new governments begins.

The dynamic and procedure is different at regional and at national level. For the regional governments, the leader of the biggest party has the right of initiative. This means that at the Flemish level, N-VA-leader Bart De Wever will start looking for parties that are willing to step into the Flemish government. He will look at socialist Vooruit and Christian democrat CD&V first.

In Brussels and Wallonia, MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez takes the lead. The Christian democrats of Les Engagés will be a preferred partner. The new minister-president of Brussels will almost certainly be David Leisterh of MR.

At the national level, King Philippe will start consultations by receiving all the party leaders to see what’s possible. For many reasons, the formation of a federal government will probably take months.

As always after elections, there will be departures. At the Flemish liberals of Open VLD, prime minister Alexander De Croo and party leader Tom Ongena stepped down on Sunday evening. It remains to be seen what will happen with the other main losers: francophone socialist PS and the green parties.

Elections for the municipalities will take place in October. A strong local base is of huge importance for the parties, so the nervousness is already increasing now.

_{#FlandersNewsService | Bart De Wever © BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK}