Belgian Federal Parliament facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Belgian Federal ParliamentDutch: Federaal Parlement van België French: Parlement fédéral belge |
|
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Type | |
| Houses | Senate Chamber of Representatives |
| Leadership | |
|
President of the Senate
|
Christine Defraigne, MR
Since October 14, 2014 |
|
President of the Chamber
|
Siegfried Bracke, N-VA
Since October 14, 2014 |
| Seats | 210 60 senators 150 representatives |
| Elections | |
|
Last election
|
May 25, 2014 |
|
Last election
|
May 25, 2014 |
| Meeting place | |
 |
|
| Palace of the Nation, Brussels | |
| Website | |
| www.fed-parl.be | |
The Belgian Federal Parliament is a bicameral parliament. It has the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate. It sits in the Palace of the Nation.
Chamber of Representatives
The number of seats in the Chamber is 150. They are elected from 11 districts. The districts are divided along linguistic lines: 5 Flemish (79 seats), 5 Walloon (49 seats), and the bilingual district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (22 seats).
To be elected a person must be at least 21 years old, have Belgium citizenship, and live in Belgium.
Senate
Till the general elections of 2014, the Senate had 71 members. There were four categories of senators: directly elected senators, community senators, co-opted senators and senators by right. Co-opted senators were 10 representatives elected by the first two groups of senators. Senators by right were the children of the current monarch.
Since 2014, the Senate has 60 members. There are only two categories of senators: community senators (50) and co-opted senators (10).
Eligibility requirements for the Senate are the same as for the Chamber.
See also
In Spanish: Parlamento Federal de Bélgica para niños
