1885–1940 1940–1978 Since 1978 The party was the big winner in the
2003 election, running on the
SP.A–Spirit joint list (
cartel) with the
social-liberal party
Spirit. Their share of the vote went up from 9% (of the total Belgian vote) to almost 15%, a second place in the number of votes. The main victim of this resurgence was the
Green! party (formerly known as
Agalev). SP.A was part of the "
purple" federal coalitions of Prime Minister
Guy Verhofstadt from 12 July 1999 until 10 June 2007, which contained both the Flemish and Francophone liberal and social-democratic parties. In 2004, the SP.A along with its partner Spirit lost the elections for the
Flemish Parliament. Although they won more seats in comparison to the Flemish elections of 1999, their percentage of the vote compared to the successful 2003 federal elections was considerably down. The reputation of then party leader
Steve Stevaert took a beating too. The party was briefly led by
Caroline Gennez, after former president
Steve Stevaert left to become governor of
Limburg.
Johan Vande Lanotte, who served as Minister of the Budget in the federal Government, was elected President and resigned as minister to become President on 17 October 2005. He resigned 11 June 2007, after SP.A–Spirit lost the
elections for the federal parliament of 10 June 2007. In these
federal elections, the cartel won 14 out of 150 seats in the
Chamber of Representatives and 4 out of 40 seats in the
Senate. Afterwards, Caroline Gennez was elected President by the party members. As of May 2009, SP.A was in opposition in federal politics. Unlike its Francophone counterpart, the
Socialist Party (PS), SP.A was not a participant in the
Leterme II Government. In January 2009, the party had apparently changed its name to Socialists and Progressive Differently (Dutch:
Socialisten en Progressieven Anders). This name change was retracted and the party baseline was changed from Social Progressive Alternative (Dutch:
Sociaal Progressief Alternatief) to Socialists and Progressive Differently (Dutch:
Socialisten en Progressieven Anders). In the
2010 federal election, SP.A won 13 seats with 9% of the overall vote. The party was a member of the
Di Rupo Government formed on 6 December 2011, until the elections in 2014. In the elections for the Chamber of Representatives on 25 May 2014, SP.A scored again 9% and received 13 seats, in contrast to their francophone Socialist Party counterparts, who lost 3 seats and whose share of the vote decreased by 2%. In the
Flemish Parliament, SP.A have 18 representatives, deriving from around 14% of the vote—this is a small reduction on the 2009 parliament, where SP.A had 19 seats, deriving from 15% of the popular vote. From 2009–2014, SP.A participated in the
Flemish Government, in an uneasy coalition with the CD & V and the N-VA. From 2014 onwards, SP.A formed part of the opposition in Flanders, as the regional government reflected the Flemish component of the federal administration, consisting of coalition of the Open-VLD, CD & V and the N-VA. In January 2018, the party advocated for a "new socialism" and a "new equality". In September 2020, party leader Conner Rousseau announced a renaming of the party to
Vooruit ("Forward"). The new name was made official on 21 March 2021. ==Political views==