Mouvement Réformateur

Reformist Movement
Mouvement Réformateur
President Olivier Chastel
Founded 21 March 2002
Preceded by Liberal Reformist Party
Citizens' Movement for Change
Headquarters National Secretariat
Avenue de la Toison D'Or 84-86
1060
Brussels, Belgium
Ideology Liberalism[1][2]
Conservative liberalism
Political position Centre-right[3]
European affiliation Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
International affiliation Liberal International
European Parliament group Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
Flemish counterpart Open VLD
Colours      Blue
Chamber of Representatives
(French-speaking seats)
20 / 63
Senate
(French-speaking seats)
8 / 24
Walloon Parliament
25 / 75
Parliament of the French Community
30 / 94
Brussels Parliament
(French-speaking seats)
18 / 72
European Parliament
(French-speaking seats)
3 / 8
Website
www.mr.be

The Reformist Movement (French: Mouvement Réformateur, MR) is a liberal[1][4] and conservative-liberal[5][6] French-speaking political party in Belgium. The party is in coalition as part of the Michel Government since October 2014, providing the current Prime Minister of Belgium Charles Michel. After the 2007 general election the MR was the largest Francophone political formation in Belgium, a position that was regained by the Socialist Party in the 2010 general election.

The MR is an alliance between three French-speaking and one German-speaking liberal parties. The Liberal Reformist Party (PRL) and the Francophone Democratic Federalists (FDF) started the alliance in 1993, and were joined in 1998 by the Citizens' Movement for Change (MCC). The alliance was then known as the PRL-FDF-MCC federation. The alliance became the MR during a congress in 2002, where the German-speaking liberal party, the Party for Freedom and Progress joined as well.[7] The label PRL is no longer used, and the three other parties still use their own names. The MR is member of Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party. However, on 25 September 2011, the FDF decided to leave the coalition. They did not agree with the manner in which president Charles Michel defended the rights of the French-speaking people in the agreement concerning the splitting of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde district, during the 2010–2011 Belgian government formation.[8]

Though the MR's original ideology emphasised classical liberalism and free market economics, it has of late joined the general trend of Belgian liberals to accept elements of social liberalism under the influence of Dirk Verhofstadt, whose brother Guy Verhofstadt led the MR's Flemish counterpart, the Open VLD.[9]

2007 general election

In the 10 June 2007 general elections, MR won 23 out of 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 6 out of 40 seats in the Senate.

2010 general election

In the 13 June 2010 general elections, MR won 18 out of 150 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 4 out of 40 seats in the Senate. After the long government formation process, on 6 December 2011 the Di Rupo I Government was formed with MR as one of the six constituent parties.

2014 election

In the federal, regional and European elections on May 25, 2014, MR won 20 seats in the Chamber of Representatives, 25 seats in the Walloon Parliament, 18 seats in the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region, and 3 out of 21 seats in the European Parliament.

Election results

Federal Parliament

Chamber of Representatives (Chambre des Représentants)
Election year # of
overall votes
% of
overall vote
% of language
group vote
# of
overall seats won
# of language
group seats won
+/– Government
1999 630,219 10.1
18 / 150
18 / 59
in coalition
2003 748,954 11.4
24 / 150
24 / 62
Increase 6 in coalition
2007 835,073 12.5
23 / 150
23 / 62
Decrease 1 in coalition
2010 605,617 9.3
18 / 150
18 / 62
Decrease 5 in coalition
2014 650,260 9.64
20 / 150
20 / 63
Increase 2 in coalition
Senate (Sénat)
Election year # of
overall votes
% of
overall vote
% of language
group vote
# of
overall seats won
# of language
group seats won
+/–
1999 654,961 10.6
5 / 40
5 / 15
2003 795,757 12.2
5 / 40
5 / 15
Steady 0
2007 815,755 12.3
6 / 40
6 / 15
Increase 1
2010 599,618 9.3
4 / 40
4 / 15
Decrease 2

Regional parliaments

Brussels Parliament

Election year # of
overall votes
% of
overall vote
% of language
group vote
# of
overall seats won
# of language
group seats won
+/– Government
1989 83,011 18.9 (#2)
15 / 75
in opposition
1995 144,478 35.0 (#1)
28 / 75
Increase 13 in coalition
1999 146,845 34.4 (#1)
27 / 75
27 / 64
Decrease 1 in coalition
2004 127,122 32.5 (#2)
25 / 89
25 / 72
Decrease 2 in opposition
2009 121,905 29.8 (#1)
24 / 89
24 / 72
Decrease 1 in opposition
2014 94.227 23.04 (#2)
18 / 89
18 / 72
Decrease 6 in opposition

Walloon Parliament

Election year # of
overall votes
% of
overall vote
% of language
group vote
# of
overall seats won
# of language
group seats won
+/– Government
1995 447,542 23.7 (#2)
19 / 75
in opposition
1999 470,454 24.7 (#2)
21 / 75
Increase 2 in coalition
2004 478,999 24.3 (#2)
20 / 75
Decrease 1 in opposition
2009 469,792 23.4 (#2)
19 / 75
Decrease 1 in opposition
2014 546.363 26.7 (#2)
25 / 75
Increase 6 in opposition

European Parliament

Election year # of
overall votes
% of
overall vote
% of language
group vote
# of
overall seats won
# of language
group seats won
+/–
1979 372,904 17.8 (#4)
2 / 24
2 / 11
1984 540,610 24.1 (#2)
3 / 24
3 / 11
Increase 1
1989 423,479 18.9 (#3)
2 / 24
2 / 11
Decrease 1
1994 541,724 24.3 (#2)
3 / 25
3 / 10
Increase 1
1999 624,445 27.0 (#1)
3 / 25
3 / 10
Steady 0
2004 671,422 27.6 (#2)
3 / 24
3 / 9
Steady 0
2009 640,092 26.1 (#2)
2 / 22
2 / 8
Decrease 1
2014 661.332 27.1 (#2)
3 / 22
2 / 8
Increase 1

Notable figures

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Parties and Elections in Europe: The database about parliamentary elections and political parties in Europe, by Wolfram Nordsieck
  2. Almeida, Dimitri. "Liberal Parties and European Integration" (PDF).
  3. Josep M. Colomer (24 July 2008). Comparative European Politics. Taylor & Francis. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-203-94609-1. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  4. Colin Hay; Anand Menon (18 January 2007). European Politics. Oxford University Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-19-928428-3.
  5. Hans Slomp (30 September 2011). Europe, A Political Profile: An American Companion to European Politics: An American Companion to European Politics. ABC-CLIO. p. 465. ISBN 978-0-313-39182-8. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  6. Peter Starke; Alexandra Kaasch; Franca Van Hooren (7 May 2013). The Welfare State as Crisis Manager: Explaining the Diversity of Policy Responses to Economic Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-137-31484-0.
  7. "Le Mouvement Réformateur: Statuts" (PDF) (in French). The Reformist Movement. Retrieved 2007-07-08.
  8. "FDF almost unanimously votes in favour of split with MR" (in Dutch). deredactie.be. Retrieved 2011-09-25.
  9. Dimitri Almeida (2012). The Impact of European Integration on Political Parties: Beyond the Permissive Consensus. Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-415-69374-5.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.