I go over the fairly complex government system of Belgium from executive, monarchy to legislative and how elections work in the country.

1. January 23,
2020
The Government System of Belgium
theweeklyrambler.com/the-government-system-of-belgium/
Belgium is a country in the west of Europe and is bordered with four other countries,
France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany and it also has a small coast along
the North Sea. The country is known for its medieval towns and renaissance architecture
and is also the headquarters for the European Union and the NATO alliance. The country
is split between a French-speaking south called Wallonia and a Dutch-speaking north
called Flanders with both of these regions having a strong nationalist movement, many
of which have advocated for independence and the division between the two sides can
often be observed in its politics as well as forming an important part of it.
The country’s capital city is Brussels located in the central portion of Belgium and is
where the instruments of the European Union is based such as the European
parliament, I plan to cover the system of the European Union in a separate blogpost in
the future.
The country is known for being bilingual with French and Dutch as main languages,
German is also another main language due to the speakers making up about 1% of the
population, mostly found in the east of the country. Belgium uses the Euro currency of
which many European Union states have adopted and the country’s population is 11.4
million as of 2018, Dutch-speakers make up 60% and French speakers 40%. The largest
religion is Christianity but the country also has many who do not follow religion.
Government Type
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2. Belgiun Coat of Arms
The Belgium government type is fairly unique and interesting as it is a federal democratic
constitutional monarchy where the Belgium government is the federal government over-
looking regional and community governments headed by Minister-Presidents with their
own unicameral legislatures, there are three regional governments, one representing the
Wallonia region, one representing the Flemish region (which is also a community
government) and the other governing the Brussels capital region.
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3. There are also two community governments (three when you count the Flemish regional
government as one to), one representing the French community and another
representing the German community, the Flemish regional government represents the
Flemish community.
Regional and Community governments hold parliamentary elections every 5-years and
the Minister-President is appointed by the respective parliament, they then make their
cabinets and policy. The regional and community governments are able to control a wide
range of laws and policies within their own jurisdictions such as transportation, public
works, water policy, cultural matters, education, public health, environment, housing,
zoning, and economic and industrial policy but can only levy a very limited amount of
taxes which are mostly surcharges. They rely on a system of revenue-sharing for funds.
They also have exclusive treaty-making powers for issues under their respective
jurisdictions.
The regional and community legislatures also get to appoint a set number of Senators to
the country’s federal Senate (upper house of parliament) every 5-years.
As you can see it is a fairly complex system, but as stated also very unique and
representative of the different groups within the highly multicultural country.
The Belgium Federal government is headed by the Prime Minister, the Head of
Government and legislative power is vested in the federal bicameral parliament. The
King is the country’s Head of State and also appoints the country’s Prime Minister.
Monarchy and Executive Federal Government
Royal Palace of Brussels. Photo byAlvesgaspar from Wikimedia. License.
The Executive Federal Government for Belgium as already said includes the Prime
Minister who is Head of Government, other appointed ministers and a cabinet that
determines governing policy and is answerable to the country’s federal bicameral
parliament. Appointed Ministers must vacate their seats in parliament, but can return to
their seat when no longer a Minister.
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4. The Belgium Monarchy is also part of the executive with the King of Belgium being the
Head of State. The Monarchy is hereditary, if there is no descendant the King can appoint
one with the consent of both houses of parliament. It only has very limited power in
political affairs and is mostly ceremonial and its monarchs’ figureheads. The King’s
orders and actions need to be countersigned as per the constitution to have any legal
effect.
Some of the King’s powers include adjourning parliament which can be only for a max of
one month and cannot be repeated in a session without the consent of parliament,
calling an extraordinary session of parliament, dissolving parliament for an election or as
the result of a no-confidence vote in the government, sanctions and promulgates laws
passed by parliament, bestows ranks in the army, appoints other certain government
officials per the constitution, can remit or reduce sentences except on ministers or
members of community and regional governments, can also pardon people except for
ministers, community or regional government members who were convicted by the
Supreme Court unless requested by the parliament concerned, grants military orders
alongside considerations of the law.
The King also appoints justices and judges to courts and the Supreme Court from those
nominated by councils/committees.
The Prime Minister is appointed by the King and heads a Council of Ministers appointed
by the King, the Council contains no more than 15 ministers excluding the Prime Minister
and there must be an equal number of Ministers from both the French and Dutch
Language Groups. The PM and his council determine government policy and are
accountable to the King and parliament.
Legislative Government
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5. Belgiun parliament. Photo by Oakenchips from Wikimedia. License.
The legislative government is made up of a bicameral parliament which is a lower and
upper house.
The lower house is the Chamber of Representatives and currently has a set 150 elected
members, although parties exist, Belgium’s unique system divides up members between
two language groups as well which are the Dutch language group (the largest) and the
French language group, the language area a member is elected in determines their
language group (the German-language area is incorporated into the French language
group), although it does not determine a governing majority it does have precedence on
certain bills, such as community bills which require a majority from members of a
language group to pass rather than just a majority of all members, this is known as a
qualified majority.
Also, three-quarters of a language group can sign a reasoned motion on a government
or private members’ bill saying that provisions within the bill can gravely damage
relations between the communities. In this case usual parliamentary procedure is
suspended and the bill in question is referred to the Council of Ministers to put its
opinion on the bill within 30 days and will invite parliament to pronounce on its opinion
or the bill which, if needed, has been amended. This reasoned motion cannot be done
on bills that require a special majority to pass or on budgets.
The upper house is the Senate and made up of a set 60 indirectly elected and co-opted
members and are once again divided into language groups based on where they were
appointed from or what group co-opted them. It originally had the same amount of
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6. power on legislation as the lower house did and was also originally elected by the people
but major reforms to the upper house have since changed this. The lower house now
has precedence on general legislation, while the Senate can choose to scrutinize or
amend these bills, the lower house has the final say. There are though certain things that
the lower house cannot overrule the upper house on.
These things include constitutional revisions, community laws that require a qualified
majority from a certain language group, laws on the basic structure of the Belgium state,
laws that approve cooperation between the Federal state, the communities and the
regions, laws on approval of international treaties and laws on the judiciary. Laws on
International Treaties are also always first introduced to the Senate before going to the
Chamber of Representatives, all of these laws listed require the approval of both houses
to pass into law.
Both houses can make committees and introduce legislation but all general legislation is
decided on by the lower house (Chamber of Representatives).
Both houses also elect a President and Vice-Presidents to overlook the houses making
sure rules are followed, regulation of debate and choosing of bills and amendments to
introduce based on their admissibility. The elected President is normally customarily a
member of a governing party and the 1st Vice President is usually of the opposite
language group to the President of the parliament. In order of precedence the eldest
parliamentary president ranks behind the King and both Presidents of parliament rank
even above the Prime Minister.
Both houses, given the right supportive majority, can hold enquiries.
It is a truly unique parliamentary system.
Electoral System
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7. Photo by Sting and NordNordWest from Wikimedia. License.
Parliamentary elections are held every 5-years. The Chamber of Representatives (lower
house) are elected from multi-seat electoral districts from inside set language areas,
either Dutch, French or German language area. Members are placed into either the
French or Dutch language group based on the language area they were elected in (those
elected from German language area are put into the French language group). As the
Dutch-speaking population is largest the Dutch language group is also largest.
The number of seats distributed to an electoral district is based on population through a
set formula of dividing the seats between districts with remaining seats going to electoral
districts with a surplus of population deemed underrepresented. The number of seats in
the lower house can change based on results of the census held every 10-years and
seats are redistributed after each census. The King directs a large part of this process.
Members are elected from party lists under a proportional representation system using
the D’Hondt method, these systems make it so as long as parties reach a certain
threshold of the vote (at least 5%) they will be represented in parliament. This system
also makes so it is almost impossible for a single party to govern and coalitions of parties
are required, this can sometimes lead to weeks or even months of negotiations before a
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8. government is formed after elections. The resigning government stays as caretaker
government until a new government is formed, it takes care of basic functions, but has
very little policy power with no majority.
The upper house (the Senate’s) 60 members are indirectly elected/appointed. 50 of the
members are elected/appointed by the community and regional governments, 29
appointed by the Flemish Parliament from among its members or from among the
Dutch Language Group from the Brussels Capital Region parliament, 10 by the French
Community Parliament from among its members, 8 by the Wallonia parliament from
among its members, 2 from the Brussels Capital-Region Parliament appointed by the
French Language Group and 1 is appointed by the German-speaking Community
parliament. The final 10 members are co-opted, where they get elected by their peers, 6
by the Dutch Language Group and 4 by the French Language Group. These indirectly
elected members are divided proportionally between parties in the Senate based on the
election result for parties in the lower house (Chamber of Representatives). There can be
no more than two-thirds of Senators of the same gender.
The Prime Minister is appointed through a unique process by the King, which involves
him consulting with prominent politicians such as the Presidents of parliament,
members from the most important political parties as well as other important officials.
After this the King then appoints an informatuer to keep him updated on government
building negotiations. The information that this informatuer brings to the King
determines who he will appoint as a formateur who he deems responsible for forming a
government, the formateur normally then gets appointed as Prime Minister by the King
when government is finally formed.
To be an eligible candidate for parliament a person must be at least 18-years-old, have
Belgian citizenship, live in Belgium and enjoy civil and political rights. Other rules also
disqualify such as already being a member of the other parliament house to the one the
candidate is running for and so on.
To vote a person must have Belgian citizenship, live in Belgium and be at least 18-years
old. When a Belgian citizen reaches the age of 18, they are automatically registered to
vote and must vote in all elections by law.
Thank you for reading, next up will be the government system of Belize.
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