RESULTS FROM BELGIUM'S EUROPEAN ELECTIONS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 000832 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/WE AND EUR/ERA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV BE SUBJECT: RESULTS FROM BELGIUM'S EUROPEAN ELECTIONS BRUSSELS 00000832 001.3 OF 002 ¶1. (U) Summary: The results from the June 7, 2009 European Parliament elections came out as expected. On the francophone side, the Parti Socialiste (PS) and liberal Mouvement Reformateur (MR) together earned over 50 percent of the vote. The surging Green party, Ecolo, significantly improved upon its 2004 result. In Flanders, the campaign of former Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt (Open VLD) greatly contributed to the Flemish Liberal party's success in the European election. End Summary. ¶2. (U) On the francophone side, the Parti Socialiste (PS) maintained its leading position despite dropping 7.0 percentage points from its total in 2004. The PS was followed by the liberal Mouvement Reformateur (MR),which finished with 26.0 percent of the vote. The Belgian green party, Ecolo, and the MR fared better in these elections than they did in the Walloon regional elections. Ecolo, in particular, came out as the big winner, improving on its 2004 result by 13.1 percent. The Christian Democrats (CDH) came in fourth place with 13.3 percent. The German-speaking affiliate of the CDH in the East of Belgium won the German-language community parliamentary seat. The full results from the francophone electoral constituency are summarized below: Party 2009 % Change -------------- -------------- -------------- PS 29.1 -7.0 CDH 13.3 -1.8 MR 26.0 -1.6 Ecolo 22.9 13.1 FN 3.6 -3.8 ¶3. (U) On the Flemish side, the Christian Democrats (CD&V) earned the greatest percentage of the vote with 23.3 percent. Interestingly, despite the breakup of the alliance between the Christian Democrats and Flemish Nationalists (CD&V and N-VA),the two parties garnered a greater proportion of the popular vote in 2009. In the 2004 elections, the CD&V - N-VA cartel won 28.1 percent of the popular vote. In 2009, the two parties, running separately, obtained 33.2%. With former PM Guy Verhofstadt leading the ticket, the liberal party Open VLD finished 5.6 percentage points above its score in the Flemish regional elections held the same day. See the full percentage breakdown below: Party 2009 % Change -------------- -------------- -------------- N-VA 9.9 -------------- Groen! 7.9 -0.1 VL.B 15.9 -7.3 CD&V 23.3 -------------- Open VLD 20.6 -1.3 LDD 7.3 -------------- ¶4. (U) Belgium's number of seats in the European Parliament dropped from 24 to 22 in 2009 as a result of the entry of new EU member states since 2004. Former PM Guy Verhofstadt won the greatest number of personal preference votes with 565,359 votes. Verhofstadt's predecessor, Jean-Luc Dehaene (CD&V), finished in second place with 450,149 votes. EU Commissioner Louis Michel (MR) came in third with 305,363 votes, followed by former PM Yves Leterme and N-VA party president Bart De Wever. BELGIUM'S NEWLY ELECTED MEMBERS OF THE EU PARLIAMENT -------------- -------------- Name Party Additional information -------------- -------------- -------------- Louis Michel MR Incumbent member of the European Commission Frederique Ries MR Incumbent MEP Jean-Claude Marcourt PS Incumbent Minister of the Walloon Regional Government Frederic Daerden PS Incumbent member of the Walloon Regional Parliament BRUSSELS 00000832 002.3 OF 002 Veronique De Keyser PS Incumbent MEP Isabelle Durant Ecolo Incumbent member of the Federal Parliament Philippe Lamberts Ecolo Newcomer Anne Delvaux CDH Member of the Federal Parliament Guy Verhofstadt Open VLD Former PM Dirk Sterckx Open VLD Incumbent MEP Anne-Mire Neyts Open VLD Incumbent MEP Jean-Luc Dehaene CD&V Former PM and Incumbent MEP Marianne Thyssen CD&V Incumbent MEP and CD&V president Ivo Belet CD&V Incumbent MEP Kathleen Van Brempt SP.A Former Flemish Regional Minister Said El Khadraoui SP.A Incumbent MEP Bart De Wever N-VA Will cede his seat to Incumbent MEP Frieda Brepoels Frank Vanhecke VL.B Incumbent MEP Jean-Marie Dedecker LDD Will cede his seat to Derk-Jan Eppink Bart Staes Groen! Incumbent MEP Mathieu Grosch CDH-CSP Incumbent MEP ¶5. (U) Comment: As on previous occasions, the election for the European Parliament was eclipsed by attention to the regional elections in Belgium. Overall, the results reflected the growing political divergence between the Flemish and Walloon regions. As in the regional elections, center-left and green parties won in Wallonia, while in Flanders (and in much of Europe) the results favored parties on the center-right. The Green parties (Ecolo and Groen!) both fared better in the European elections in Belgium than in the regional elections. Ecolo's strong performance earned the party an additional seat in the EP, where the Greens hope to be the fourth strongest political force. The only really striking feature of the European tally is the result obtained by Open VLD, which did considerably better than its rather poor showing in the Flemish regional election. Former PM Guy Verhofstadt not only won the most personal preference votes, but his efforts helped contribute to a 5.6 percentage point better showing for his party than in the Flemish regional election. Consequently, Verhofstadt's return to the helm of Open VLD came as no surprise after incumbent Open VLD president Bart Somers announced his resignation the day of the election. The strong showing by EU Commissioner Louis Michel, despite the MR's poor performance in the Wallonia regional election, reinforces Michel's position within the MR, and indirectly that of his son Charles, at a time when Vice Premier and MR president Didier Reynders is being heavily criticized for having made a serious mistake by running a too-negative and abrasive election campaign. BUSH .