The Belgian coalition of N-VA, CD&V, MR and Open VLD lost more than a quarter of its seats, the worst government punishment in 20 years.

[2] The 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected in 11 multi-member constituencies, being the ten provinces and Brussels, with between 4 and 24 seats.

[3] Representatives elected from the five Flemish Region provinces, Antwerp (24), East Flanders (20), Flemish Brabant (15), Limburg (12) and West Flanders (16), automatically belonged to the Dutch-speaking language group in parliament, whereas those elected from the five provinces of Wallonia, Hainaut (18), Liège (15), Luxembourg (4), Namur (6) and Walloon Brabant (5), formed the French-speaking language group.

Apportionment of seats is done every ten years in accordance with population data, last by royal order of 31 January 2013.

Additionally, de facto practice is to formally dissolve parliament and trigger new elections by Declaration of Revision of the Constitution shortly before regular expiry of the parliamentary term.

[7] A continuation of the "Swedish coalition"[a] (N-VA, MR, CD&V and Open Vld), potentially expanded with cdH, was a likely scenario.

[10][11] The following incumbent members of the Chamber of Representatives announced their retirement from (national) politics: Since the sixth state reform of 2011, the Senate is no longer directly elected.

[22][23] In response to Vlaams Belang's surge in support there has been some speculation that the N-VA leader Bart De Wever may break the Cordon sanitaire imposed on the party, resulting in the two Flemish nationalist parties joining forces, by refusing to rule out talks with the VB, as their strong results could make forming a coalition more difficult.

[27] On 30 May, King Philippe appointed Johan Vande Lanotte (sp.a) and Didier Reynders (MR), two experienced politicians with a long period of service, as informateurs.

The informateurs will report back to the king of the 4 November, following which a formateur will be appointed to introduce the third stage of government formation.

[34] On 4 November, the two new informateurs, Rudy Demotte and Geert Bourgeois, offered their resignations to the King, as they could not break the political deadlock.