1936 Belgian general election

1936 Belgian general election

24 May 1936

All 202 seats in the Chamber of Representatives
All 101 seats in the Senate
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Emile Vandervelde Paul van Zeeland Léon Dens
Party Labour Catholic Liberal
Leader since 1933 Candidate for PM 1935
Last election 73 seats, 37.03% 79 seats, 38.42% 24 seats, 14.08%
Seats won 70 61 23
Seat change 3 18 1
Popular vote 758,485 653,717 292,970
Percentage 32.11% 27.67% 12.40%
Swing 4.92% 10.75% 1.68%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Léon Degrelle Staf De Clercq Joseph Jacquemotte
Party Rexist VNV Communist
Leader since 1935 1933 1934
Last election New New 3 seats, 2.90%
Seats won 21 16 9
Seat change New New 6
Popular vote 271,481 164,253 143,223
Percentage 11.49% 7.06% 6.06%
Swing New New 3.16%

Government before election

van Zeeland I
National Unity (Catholic-Lab-Lib)

Government after election

van Zeeland II
National Unity (Catholic-Lab-Lib)

General elections were held in Belgium on 24 May 1936. The result was a victory for the Belgian Labour Party, which won 70 of the 202 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 39 of the 101 seats in the Senate. Voter turnout was 94.7%.

Despite the rise of far-right and far-left parties, Paul van Zeeland continued as Prime Minister leading a government of national unity, composed of the three major parties (Catholics, Socialists and Liberals).