Activity 6: Who is in power? Who is who in the Parliament?
Brussels, administrative city and spy nest?
Activity 6: Who is in power? Who is who in the Parliament?
Disclaimer:
Sections 6.6 and 6.7 refer to the political situation in place since the 2019 elections. After only 615 days following the 2024 elections, there is a new Brussels government. These sections will be updated at the start of the 2026-2027 academic year.
The Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region has no less than fifteen political parties! The lists of candidates for the regional elections must be 'organised by language', which means that a candidate is either on a French-speaking or a Dutch-speaking list. Bilingual lists are not allowed in regional elections. They are, however, allowed for municipal elections.
Which parties are represented in the Brussels Parliament and how many seats do they have? To answer these questions, you should first be aware that traditionally specific colours are associated with specific parties. Do you know which political parties are present in the Brussels Parliament? They have different colour codes which have a certain meaning. As Nicolas Baygert points out, there are "categories of signs with well-defined and conventional meanings (or 'connotations'). Green for the ecologists, blue for the liberals or red for the socialists. Each political party has its own codes". Source : RTBF
You may wonder why there are sometimes two identical colours in the Brussels Parliament. The reason is simple: there is both a French-speaking and a Dutch-speaking party that historically formed the same party (two socialist parties, two liberal parties, etc.). The Dutch-speaking parties have (since 2004) a fixed number of seats in the Brussels Parliament, i.e. 17 out of a total of 89. This is one of the many mechanisms protecting the traditionally Dutch-speaking minority in a city politically dominated by French-speaking political parties.
Look carefully at the table below. Then, associate each political group with a colour on its seating placement in the Brussels Parliament.
| The French-speaking language group (situation following the elections of 26.05.2019) |
The Dutch-speaking language group (situation following the elections of 26.05.2019) |
||
| Parti Socialiste (PS) | 17 MPs | Groen | 4 MPs |
| Ecolo | 15 MPs | Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (Open Vld) | 3 MPs |
| Mouvement Réformateur (MR) | 13 MPs | De Vlaamse sociaaldemocratische partij (Sp.a-One.brussels) | 3 MPs |
| Démocrate Fédéraliste Indépendant (DéFI) | 10 MPs | Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA) | 3 MPs |
| Parti des Travailleurs Belges (PTB) | 10 MPs | Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V) | 1 MP |
|
Centre Démocrate Humaniste (CdH) |
6 MPs | Vlaams Belang | 1 MP |
| DierAnimal | 1 MP | Partij van de Arbeid van België (PVDA) | 1 MP |
| Agora | 1 MP | ||
Hints: don't forget to count the three seats occupied in the centre by the President, the First Vice-President and the Secretary of Parliament! While the Brussels Parliament use the same colour tones for most French-speaking and Dutch-speaking parties (e.g. red and pink, dark blue and light blue, dark green and light green, etc.), some French-speaking and Dutch-speaking parties are represented with exactly the same colour, such as the PTB and the PVDA.
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