2. Federal parlementary democracy Under a constitunional monarchy with King Albert ll -attained federal status in 1995 Devided into: - Federal government - Regional government -> Flanders (Dutch) -> Wallonia (french) -> Bilingual capital - Community councils -> Dutch community -> French community -> German community The regional government has authority over 10 policy areas The linguistic communities are in charge of: -education, culture and language

3. Dutch community French community German community Flanders (Dutch) Wallonia (french) Bilingual capital

4. Executive Prime minister: head of government and leader majority party appointed by monarchy ( King Albert II ) Legislature 2 chambers: - House of representatives ( taking final decision on laws ) - Senate ( upper house ) ( advisory chamber )

5. Main political parties Liberal party: VLD - MR Socialist party: SPA – PS Christian Democratic: CD&V and NVA – CdH Environment Groups: Groen – Ecolo Political developments recent years crisis -Dutch speaking region of flanders (christian democratic) -Francophone Wallonia (socialistic) => much discussion

6. Situation at this moment: politic complex country political parties wanted to have more power in own part of Belgium => more governments => no more unitairian parties => regional parties conflicts about little things => irritates the Belgians Now we don`t have a governement Because they can`t agree (no consencus) But now we have a government for courant bussiness

7. Voting Flanders: can vote for dutch parties Wallonia: can vote for Francophone parties Brussels: can vote for either dutch or francophone parties -> everybody older than 18 must vote There are 150 seats in House of Representatives There are 11 electoral districts -> Each district is given a number of seats proportional to ist total population There are71 seats in senate -> 40 directly elected (25 Flemisch;15 Francophone) -> 21 elected by commity parliaments -> 10 co-opted

8. The parties form a list a few most before elections, as there are seats available After each election: strongest party forms coalition with other parties to form government =>very difficult