Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives

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The Belgian Chamber of Representatives (Dutch: de Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers, French: la Chambre des Représentants, German: Abgeordnetenkammer) is one of the two chambers of the Belgian Federal Parliament.

1 Composition
- 1.1 Current composition
2 Francophone Parties
3 Flemish Parties
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Composition

Article 62 of the Belgian Constitution fixes the number of seats in the Chamber of Representatives at 150. There are 11 electoral districts, which correspond with the Provinces, except in the province of Flemish Brabant, which is divided into two electoral districts: Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde and Leuven. The number of seats for each electoral district is proportional to its population. All electoral districts have an electoral threshold of 5%, except for the electoral districts of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde and Leuven.^[1]

There are 10 monolingual (5 Dutch-speaking and 5 French-speaking) electoral districts. Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde is the only bilingual electoral districts as it encompasses both the 19 bilingual municipalities from the Brussels-Capital region and some 35 Dutch-speaking municipalities in Flemish Brabant, including 6 municipalities with linguistic facilities for French-speaking inhabitants.

The Representatives are divided into two so-called "language groups". Currently, of the total of 150 Representatives, 88 are part of the Dutch language group, which consists of the Representatives from the Dutch language area, and 62 are part of the French language group, which consists of the Representatives from the French language area and the German language area. For the Representatives from Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde the language in which they take their oath as a Representative determines which language group they belong to.

Nevertheless, because of the Belgian Constitution, both linguistic communities are granted equal powers in the Parliament. Although in general bills can be passed without a majority in both linguistic groups, bills relating to specific issues (so called 'community laws') can not and need the consent of both language groups^[2]. The current President of the Chamber is Herman De Croo (VLD).

[edit] Current composition

Composition of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives from 2003-2007 (foreseen):

Affiliation		Members
	Mouvement Réformateur	25
	Parti Socialiste	25
	Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten	25
	Socialistische Partij Anders - Spirit	23
	Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams	21
	Vlaams Belang	18
	Centre Démocrate Humaniste	7
	Ecolo	4
	Front National	1
	Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie	1
Total		150