In 1987 the Martens center-right cabinet had to resign over the perennial Fourons issue. The many painstakingly reached compromises each time met strong opposition from the Francophone Social Christian Party (PSC) and its ministers on the government benches. Once the government resignation accepted by the King, Parliament was dissolved and elections were held. They resulted in a Socialist victory, and a personaldefeat for Prime Minister Martens. In the election aftermath, a cabinet of Christian Democrats and Socialists became more likely. Because of the Fourons issue, the Cabinet found hardly time to address their other issues, and many of the decisions it reached were never implemented because of the government crisis; e.g. the tax reform plan. The most important decision in the international field was the sending of minesweepers to the Gulf.

In 1987 the centre-right coalition was able to break through partially the triopoly of the three trade unions - the christian ACV, the socialist ABVV en the liberal ACLVB - by admitting to the four-yearly social elections separate lists of candidates for the members of the executive staffs. As a result of this, the position of the three unions weakened. The decline was most strongly felt by the ABVV; the socialist union lost 2.6 %. The minor loss of 0.7 % enabled the christian ACV to regain its position as the strongest Belgian union, a position which was taken for the first time in 1979 and was lost again in the elections of 1983. After the recent social elections, neither the unions (43.7 %), nor the « independent » National Confederation of the Executive Staff Members (34.1 %), nor the individual lists of the members of the executive staffs (222 %) can claim to be « the representator » of the members of the executive staffs. Through the analysis of the 1987 results, it is found once more that social elections are little affected by political events. The results of the social elections are in no way correlated to the results of the politicalelections.