{"id":417747,"date":"2025-02-03T13:20:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T12:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/03\/belgio-governo-arizona-bart-de-wever\/"},"modified":"2025-02-03T14:26:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T13:26:36","slug":"belgium-finally-has-a-government-conservative-bart-de-wever-is-the-new-premier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/03\/belgium-finally-has-a-government-conservative-bart-de-wever-is-the-new-premier\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium finally has a government: conservative Bart De Wever is the new premier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –\u00a0It took almost eight months<\/strong> but at last, also Belgium has a government<\/strong>. The head of the federal executive has been entrusted to Bart De Wever<\/strong>, leader of the Flemish conservative-nationalist Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA) party,<\/strong> which, after last June’s elections, is the strongest of the five coalition members. The hard-won agreement between the political forces includes, among other things, a tightening on immigration <\/strong>and the reshaping of some of the generous national social policies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The coalition supporting the new Belgian government will thus be composed, in addition to the right-wing nationalists of the N-VA<\/strong> (who in the European Parliament are part of the ECR Conservative group but are not party members), of two other Flemish parties – the Christian-Democrats<\/strong> of the Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams<\/i> (CD&V<\/strong>, a member of the EPP) and the Social-Democrats of the Vooruit<\/i><\/strong> (part of the European Socialists) – and two Walloons, the centrists<\/strong>\u00a0Les engag\u00e9s <\/i>(LE)<\/strong> and the liberal-conservatives<\/strong> of\u00a0Mouvement r\u00e9formateur <\/i>(MR<\/strong>), both affiliated with Renew. The parliamentary majority holds 81 seats<\/strong> out of 150 in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Belgium’s bicameral legislature.<\/p>\n

This five-party alliance has been\u00a0dubbed “Arizona” due to\u00a0<\/strong>the colors of its members resemble those of the flag of the US state with the\u00a0same name. However,\u00a0the ability to find a compromise position on the most contentious issues has to be seen,<\/strong> and, according to many observers, the difficulties encountered by negotiators in the talks are\u00a0not a good sign.<\/p>\n

The talks to form the government<\/strong> began after the June 9 elections,\u00a0when voters\u00a0chose<\/a>\u00a0their representatives in the federal and European parliaments. The polls had confirmed a slide to the right in the assembly<\/strong>, with a noteworthy<\/strong> advance of the N-VA<\/strong> (first party with 16.7 percent) and the historic win\u00a0by the Flemish secessionists<\/strong> of the Vlaams Belang<\/i> (VB<\/strong>), which came second with 13.8 percent.<\/p>\n

Therefore,\u00a0King Philippe mandated the 54-year-old De Wever<\/strong> – who in the past called for the “evaporation” of Belgium<\/strong>\u00a0–\u00a0to form\u00a0an executive. However, it took 234 days<\/strong> before seeing a successful outcome. Not that such a long gestation is new in Belgium: after the 2019 elections, it took 493, while the record was\u00a0in 2010, with 541 days of impasse<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The appointment of De Wever as prime minister took place this morning<\/strong> (Feb. 3) by\u00a0the hand of the monarch after finally reaching<\/a>\u00a0an agreement on Friday evening (Jan. 31). Negotiators remained at the negotiating table throughout the night — until Saturday morning — to refine the program<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n

And now to work!<\/p>\n

And now, back to work!<\/p>\n

And now get to work! pic.twitter.com\/qtKCXucSeG<\/a><\/p>\n

– Bart De Wever (@Bart_DeWever) February 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition to the prime minister, who picks up the baton from the Flemish liberal Alexander De Croo<\/strong>, the N-VA<\/strong> takes home three ministries\u00a0(Finance<\/strong>, Defense<\/strong> and Migration<\/strong>); four others got the MR <\/i><\/strong> (including the portfolios of Economy<\/strong> and Interior<\/strong>), while Vooruit<\/i><\/strong>, CD&V,<\/strong> and LE<\/strong> each have\u00a0two ministers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Each political force has claimed its successes in negotiating and shaping the government agenda<\/strong>, which, on paper, provides several key points<\/a>. It\u00a0ranges from reducing taxes on labor<\/strong> to maintaining the indexing of wages and pensions to inflation<\/strong> (albeit with some adjustments<\/strong> to the current system, such as cutting unemployment benefits for the under-55s) from investment in renewables<\/strong> (which will be accompanied by higher taxation of fossil fuels) to upgrading rail lines<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And then from the\u00a0abolition of the Senate<\/strong> and a stop to state funding to parties\u00a0to a new focus on public health care<\/strong>, from the introduction of a “solidarity contribution<\/strong>” aimed at the better-off sections of the population (a 10 percent tax on capital gains from the sale of shares) and an increase in taxes on banks to a clampdown\u00a0on illegal immigration<\/strong> and border controls, coupled with an accelerated procedure for repatriations<\/strong> and a crackdown on family reunifications.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the tightening of migration policies<\/strong> – as well as the increased investment in the defense sector<\/strong>, another item on the new government’s agenda – follows a trend that involves<\/a> the entire continent at this political stage, characterized by a marked shift to the right<\/strong> not only in the European Parliament<\/a> but also by\u00a0community executive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It also reflects\u00a0the stance of the chancelleries represented at the Council: Belgium now\u00a0joins a growing front of Member States led by conservative executives<\/strong>, soon to be joined by Germany<\/strong> (where the leader of the CDU and likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/strong> is flirting <\/a>with the far-right wing of the AfD<\/strong>) and Austria<\/strong> (in Vienna the post-Nazi right wing of the\u00a0FP\u00d6<\/strong>\u00a0is\u00a0likely<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0lead the government<\/strong> for the first time since World War II).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The leader of the Flemish nationalist formation was officially named head of the executive, which took office this morning. The coalition has five parties (three Flemish and two Walloons) and has a majority in the House, but it is not a given that work will proceed smoothly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":417741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[30340,30339,25801,30343,30341],"class_list":["post-417747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-coalition-arizona-en","tag-bart-de-wever-en","tag-belgian-cat-en","tag-government-en","tag-n-va-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417747"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417756,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417747\/revisions\/417756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}