The May 18 2003 Belgian general elections were the first Belgian elections to be held under a new electoral code. One of the novelties was an electoral threshold of 5%, which has cost many seats to the N-VA and the Green parties. The Flemish greens even lost all their seats.
The greens were attacked on two fronts: some, including their coalition partners, accused them of being to fundamentalist, others said that they had betrayed their ideals. The resignation of a Walloon green minister, one week before the elections, probably didn't do them much good either
Although it was predicted in some opinion polls, the gains of the Front National were surprising, considering that it seldomly appeared in the media.
The most important trend was the recovery of the Flemish social-democrats, lead by the popular (some would say populist) Steve Stevaert. The fact that Elio di Rupo was learning Dutch caused rumours that he hoped to become Prime Minister, if the social-democrats would turn out to be the largest political family.
Themes that probably influenced the election results in some way or another were the government's opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the controversy around the nuisance around the airport of Zaventem, the controversy surrounding the banning of tobacco publicity, and unemployment. But a general dominating theme was lacking.
Results
For the Chamber of Deputies:
| Party | 1999 in % | 1999 in seats | 2003 in % | 2003 in seats | gains/losses in % | gains/losses in seats |
| VLD | 14,3 | 23 | 15,4 | 25 | +1,1 | +2 |
| SP.a-SPIRIT(1) | 9,5 | 14 | 14,9 | 23 | +5,4 | +9 |
| CD&V (2) | 14,1 | 22 | 13,2 | 21 | -1,1 | -1 |
| PS | 10,2 | 19 | 13,0 | 25 | +2,8 | +6 |
| Vl.Blok | 9,9 | 15 | 11,6 | 18 | +1,7 | +3 |
| MR (3) | 10,1 | 18 | 11,4 | 24 | +1,3 | +6 |
| cdH(4) | 5,9 | 10 | 5,5 | 8 | -0,4 | -2 |
| N-VA(5) | 5,6 | 10 | 3,1 | 1 | -2,5 | -9 |
| ECOLO | 7,4 | 11 | 3,1 | 4 | -4,3 | -7 |
| AGALEV | 7,0 | 11 | 2,5 | 0 | -3,5 | -11 |
| FN | 1,5 | 1 | 2,0 | 1 | +0,5 | 0 |
For the Senate (only the directly elected senators are shown):
| Party | 1999 in % | 1999 in seats | 2003 in % | 2003 in seats | gains/losses in % | gains/losses in seats |
| SP.a-SPIRIT (1) | 8,9 | 4 | 15,5 | 7 | +6,6 | +3 |
| VLD | 15,4 | 6 | 15,4 | 7 | 0 | +1 |
| PS | 9,7 | 4 | 12,8 | 6 | +3,1 | +2 |
| CD&V (2) | 14,7 | 6 | 12,7 | 6 | -2,0 | 0 |
| MR (3) | 10,6 | 5 | 12,1 | 5 | +1,6 | 0 |
| Vl.Blok | 9,4 | 4 | 11,3 | 5 | +1,9 | +1 |
| cdH (4) | 6,0 | 3 | 5,5 | 2 | -0,5 | -1 |
| ECOLO | 7,4 | 3 | 3,2 | 1 | -4,2 | -2 |
| FN | 1,5 | 0 | 2,2 | 1 | +0,7 | +1 |
Notes
(1) The data of the 1999 election are those of the SP.
(2) The data of the 1999 election are those of the CVP.
(3) The data of the 1999 elections are those of the PRL-FDF-MCC alliance.
(4) The data of the 1999 elections are those of the PSC.
(5) The data of the 1999 elections are those of the Volksunie.
