Following the legislative elections, the Greens will no longer have a parliamentary group in the next legislature as they lost five seats. The Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR), on the other hand, regained its parliamentary group after 14 years.
What does it mean for a party to have a parliamentary group in the House? What conditions must be met to form one and what benefits do the parties derive from it?
A minimum of five representatives is needed to form a parliamentary group, which brings with it certain advantages, both financially and in terms of the number of staff that can be hired. For the Greens, the loss of their strength means financial losses of hundreds of thousands of euros a year.
We will now have to evaluate these figures and see what this means for the future of the group and the work of the only four MPs, said Greens co-president Djuna Bernard in an interview with RTL.
If a party has between one and four representatives in the Chamber, it is considered a political affiliation. Compared to a party with the strength of a parliamentary group, an affiliation has less influence on the institutional system of parliament.
Laurent Scheeck, Secretary General of the Chamber, explains that, for example, a political affiliation is only present at the Conference of Presidents as an observer. It is not a member of the Chamber’s Bureau and since certain procedures require the signatures of at least five MPs, it needs the support of other parties.
However, two political affiliations can form a technical group together to have more rights and different funding. The Greens are currently analysing the advantages and disadvantages of this possibility, but they want to give themselves time to make a decision, according to Djuna Bernard.
