All 124 members of the Flemish Parliament were elected. The five Flemish provinces 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-PresidentKris Peeters 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
Main candidates
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 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. Outgoing Minister-President Kris Peeters became minister in the federal Michel Government.
In detail
The candidate receiving the most preference votes was Liesbeth Homans in Antwerp, with 159,965 votes, ahead of Kris Peeters. The highest percentage of votes in a municipality was achieved by N-VA in Schilde with 51,27% of the votes.
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.
All 25 members of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community were elected. The incumbent government, led by Karl-Heinz Lambertz, is a coalition of the Socialist Party, the liberal Party for Freedom and Progress and the regionalist ProDG. Only a few days after the elections, these parties agreed to continue their coalition government, but with Oliver Paasch as Minister-President since his party became bigger than SP.
