The Senate consists of 71 members. There are four categories of senators: directly elected senators, community senators, co-opted senators and senators by right (Dutch: senatoren van rechtswege, French: sénateurs de droit). For the election of the 25 Flemish and 15 Francophone directly-elected senators, the country is divided into three constituencies. Of the Community senators, 10 are elected by the Flemish Parliament, 10 by the Parliament of the French Community, and 1 by the Parliament of the German-speaking Community.
The third category, the co-opted senators, consists of 10 representatives elected by the first two groups of senators. Eligibility requirements for the Senate are identical to those for the Chamber.
The final category, that of senators by right, consists of the children of the reigning monarch who are eligible to succeed to the throne. In theory, they can vote, but since the royal family is supposed to be politically neutral, they, in practice, do not vote in the Senate. In theory and in practice, they are not considered when the quorum is counted.
In the past, senators by right could only be men, since women were excluded from the succession. Since 1991, however, this is no longer true and, at the present time, Princess Astrid, Prince Philippe, and Prince Laurent exercise their constitutional right to a seat in the Senate, but constitutional convention provides that senators by right do not participate in Senate votes even though they officially have the right to do so.
The President of the Senate is Danny Pieters (N-VA) as of 2010, who succeeded Armand De Decker (MR).
The Senate holds its plenary meetings in the Palace of the Nation, Brussels.
| Parties | Senate | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | +/− | % | +/− | Seats | +/− | ||||
| New Flemish Alliance (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie) | 1,268,780 | * | 19.61% | * | 9 | * | |||
| Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste) | 880,828 | 202,016 | 13.62% | 3.37% | 7 | 3 | |||
| Christian Democratic and Flemish (Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams) | 646,375 | * | 9.99% | * | 4 | * | |||
| Socialist Party – Differently (Socialistische Partij – Anders) | 613,079 | 52,251 | 9.48% | 0.54% | 4 | 0 | |||
| Reformist Movement (Mouvement Réformateur) | 599,618 | 216,137 | 9.27% | 3.04% | 4 | 2 | |||
| Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten) | 533,124 | 288,809 | 8.24% | 4.16% | 4 | 1 | |||
| Flemish Interest (Vlaams Belang) | 491,547 | 296,263 | 7.60% | 4.29% | 3 | 2 | |||
| Ecolo | 353,111 | 32,355 | 5.46% | 0.36% | 2 | 0 | |||
| Humanist Democratic Centre (Centre Démocrate Humaniste) | 331,870 | 58,982 | 5.13% | 0.77% | 2 | 0 | |||
| Green! (Groen!) | 251,546 | 10,454 | 3.89% | 0.25% | 1 | 0 | |||
| List Dedecker (Lijst Dedecker) | 130,779 | 93,215 | 2.02% | 1.36% | 0 | 1 | |||
| Popular Party (Parti Populaire) | 98,858 | — | 1.53% | — | 0 | — | |||
| Others | 269,588 | — | 4.17% | — | — | — | |||
| Total | 6,469,304 | 100.00% | 40 | ||||||
| Source: Federal Portal − Senate Elections 2010. Notes: * Christian Democratic and Flemish and the New Flemish Alliance contested the 2007 elections together, receiving 19.42% of the votes and 9 seats. |
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Read more about this topic: Belgian Federal Parliament
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