Belgian Socialist Party

Belgian Socialist Party

French: *Parti socialiste belge*
Dutch: *Belgische Socialistische Partij*
Belgian Socialist Party French: Parti socialiste belge; Dutch: Belgische Socialistische Partij
	The fist and rose emblem used by the party from 1973.
President	Achille Van Acker (first); André Cools (last)
Founder	Paul-Henri Spaak
Founded	May 1945
Dissolved	October 1978
Preceded by	Belgian Labour Party
Succeeded by	Socialist Party (Flemish); Socialist Party (Francophone)
Headquarters	Brussels, Belgium
Trade union wing	General Federation of Belgian Labour
Ideology	Social democracy; Democratic socialism
Political position	Centre-left
European affiliation	Confederation of the Socialist Parties
International affiliation	Socialist International
Colours	Red
	Politics of Belgium; Political parties; Elections;

The Belgian Socialist Party (French: Parti Socialiste belge, PSB; Dutch: Belgische Socialistische Partij, BSP) was a social-democratic political party which existed in Belgium from 1945 to 1978. During its time in office, a number of progressive social reforms were introduced.^[2]

The BSP was founded by activists from the Belgian Labour Party (1885–1940), which was the first Belgian socialist party. It ceased to function during the Second World War, while Belgium was under Nazi occupation. Its main support bases were the co-operative and trade union movements, and it won relatively more support in Wallonia. Like most Belgian political organisations, the party supported greater integration with the European Economic Community, albeit in a socialist context.^[3]

As linguistic and community issues became more divisive, the Belgian Socialist Party split into two new entities: the Flemish Socialist Party for the Flemish community and the Parti Socialiste (PS) for the Francophone community.

Presidents

Presidents BSP/PSB^[4]
Period	President
1942–1945	Achille Van Acker
1945–1959	Max Buset
1959–1971	Leo Collard
Co-Presidents (from 1971)^[5]
Period	Dutch speaking co-President	French speaking co-President
1971–1973	Jos Van Eynde [nl]	Edmond Leburton
1973–1975	Jos Van Eynde	André Cools
1975–1977	Willy Claes	André Cools
1977–1978	Karel Van Miert	André Cools

Election Results


Election year	Votes		Seats	Change
Election year	Number	Percentage	Seats	Change
1946	746,738	31.57%	69 / 202
1949	1,496,539	29.76%	66 / 212	3
1950	1,705,781	34.51%	73 / 212	7
1954	1,927,015	37.34%	82 / 212	9
1958	1,897,646	35.79%	80 / 212	2
1961	1,933,424	36.72%	84 / 212	4
1965	1,403,107	28.28%	64 / 212	20
1968	1,403,107	27.10%	59 / 212	5
1971	549,483 623,395 1,172,878	10.40% 11.80% 22,20%	25 / 212 25 / 212 50 / 212 ^[a]	9
1974	1,401,725	26.66%	59 / 212 ^[b]	9
1977	602,132 725,513 1,327,645	10.80% 13.01% 23,81%	34 / 212 27 / 212 61 / 212 ^[a]	2

^a From the 1971 general election, the Belgian Socialist Party ran separate lists for Flanders and Wallonia; however, they still existed under a single party. The letters in bold thus show the results of the combined lists and consequently the true result of the Belgian Socialist Party in each election
^b Whilst the Belgian Socialist Party also ran separate lists for Flanders and Wallonia in the 1974 general election, there is no information on the results of separate lists, hence only the result for the combined lists is shown.

References

^ Pfister, Thierry (24 May 1975). "M. Mitterrand cherche un langage commun avec les leaders socialistes de l'Europe du Sud". Le Monde (in French). Paris. ISSN 0395-2037. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ Cook, Chris; Francis, Mary (1979). The first European elections: A handbook and guide. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 0-333-26575-0.
^ "sp.a partijvoorzitters". Tijdslijn.s-p-a.be. Archived from the original on 2009-10-09. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
^ [1] Archived October 9, 2009, at the Wayback Machine