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PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
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DE RUEHBS #0832/01 1681552
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 171552Z JUN 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9075
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

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 
.