Belgian King Philippe, on Monday, accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, as is normal after elections in Belgium.

Mr De Croo’s coalition government will stay on as a caretaker until a new coalition is formed, the prime minister said on the social media platform X.

The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a conservative and Flemish separatist group, came first in the elections, as they did in the last election in 2019.

However, the N-VA remained in opposition, while Mr De Croo’s Flemish liberal Open VLD eventually formed a seven-party coalition.

Belgian politics is fractious and split almost entirely on linguistic lines between the Dutch-speaking Flemings and the French-speaking Walloons.

There is very little direct competition for votes between the parties of the two languages, which largely compete amongst themselves separately.

The final results on Monday showed the conservative N-VA with 24 of 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives, having lost one seat.

The more extreme Flemish-nationalist party Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) has 20 points, a gain of two, as does the French-speaking liberal Reformist Movement (MR), which gained four.

Mr De Croo’s OpenVLD performed poorly, losing five of its 12 seats, leaving it with seven.

The MR was the only coalition partner to gain seats.

The Flemish Social Democratic Vooruit, also a coalition partner, held on to its 13 seats, though it made no net gain.

The remaining four parties in the outgoing coalition all suffered losses, especially the French-speaking green party Ecolo, which lost 10 seats, leaving it with just three.

The Belgian federal election was held on the same day as the European Parliament election. 

(dpa/NAN)