1968 Belgian general election

General elections were held in Belgium on 31 March 1968.[1] The Christian Social Party remained the largest party.[2] Voter turnout was 90.0%.[3] Elections for the nine provincial councils were also held.

1968 Belgian general election

31 March 1968
212 seats in the Chamber of Representatives
First party Second party Third party   Leader Gaston Eyskens Léo Collard Omer Vanaudenhove Party Christian Social Socialist Freedom and Progress Leader since Candidate for PM 1959 1961 Last election 77 seats, 34.45% 64 seats, 28.28% 48 seats, 21.61% Seats won 69 59 47 Seat change 8 5 1 Popular vote 1,643,785 1,403,107 1,080,894 Percentage 31.75% 27.10% 20.87% Swing 2.65% 1.18% 0.74%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Frans Van der Elst Albert Peeters Party VU FDF RW Leader since 1955 1967 Last election 12 seats, 6.69% 3 seats, 1.33% New Seats won 20 6 6 Seat change 8 3 New Popular vote 506,697 154,023 151,421 Percentage 9.79% 2.92% 2.92% Swing 3.10% 1.59% New
Colours denote the winning party in each electoral district (for the Chamber of Deputies).
Government before election Vanden Boeynants I CVP/PSC-PVV/PLP Elected Government G. Eyskens V CVP/PSC-BSP/PSB

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The snap elections were called after the government, a coalition of the Christian Social Party and the liberal Party for Freedom and Progress led by Christian Democrat Paul Vanden Boeynants, fell due to the Leuven Crisis.

The linguistic crisis would trigger the split of the dominant Christian Social Party into a Flemish and French-speaking party. The two other main parties would follow suit. The crisis also caused the rise of small linguistic, federalist parties, such as the People's Union on the Flemish side and the Democratic Front of the Francophones and Walloon Rally on the French-speaking side.