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Belgium is a federal state with a multi-party political system, with numerous parties who factually have no chance of gaining power alone, and therefore must work with each other to form coalition governments. Almost all Belgian political parties are divided into linguistic groups, either Dutch-speaking parties (see also political parties in Flanders), Francophone parties or Germanophone parties. The Flemish parties operate in Flanders and in the Brussels-Capital Region. The Francophone parties operate in Wallonia and in the Brussels-Capital Region. There are also parties operating in the comparatively small German-speaking community. No party family has a realistic chance of winning enough seats to govern alone, let alone win an outright majority. Political parties are thus organised along community lines, especially for the three main communities. There are no representative parties active in both communities. Even in Brussels, all parties presenting candidates are either Flemish parties, or French-speaking. As such, the internal organisation of the political parties reflects the fundamentally dual nature of Belgian society. There are no significant parties left who exist, or operate on a national, Belgian level. From the creation of the Belgian state in 1830 and throughout most of the 19th century, two political parties dominated Belgian politics: the Catholic Party (Church-oriented and conservative) and the Liberal Party (anti-clerical and progressive). In the late 19th century the Labour Party arose to represent the emerging industrial working class. These three groups still dominate Belgian politics, but they have evolved substantially in character. ==Catholics/Christian Democrats== After World War II, the Catholic (now Christian Democratic) Party severed its formal ties with the Church. It became a mass party of the centre. In 1968, the Christian Democratic Party, responding to linguistic tensions in the country, divided into two independent parties: the Parti Social Chrétien (PSC) in French-speaking Belgium and the Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP) in Flanders. The two parties pursue the same basic policies but maintain separate organisations. The CVP is the larger of the two, getting more than twice as many votes as the PSC. The chairman of the Flemish Catholic party is now Wouter Beke. MP and Brussels Alderman Joëlle Milquet is president of the Francophone Catholic party. Following the 1999 general elections, the CVP and PSC were ousted from office, bringing an end to a 40-year term on the government benches. In 2001, the CVP changed its name to Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V). In 2002, the PSC also changed its name to Centre démocrate humaniste (cdH). After the big losses in the 1999 general elections, when both CVP and PSC were banished to the opposition benches, some party members decided to leave the mother parties in order to form a new liberal-conservative party. In Flanders, the New Christian Democrats (NCD) was founded by Johan Van Hecke and ''Karel Pinxten''. In Wallonia, the Citizens' Movement for Change (MCC) was founded by Gérard Deprez. Both parties soon joined the major liberal parties, respectively the ''VLD'' in Flanders and the ''MR'' in Wallonia. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Political parties in Belgium」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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