New Belgian Government Takes Office More Than Six Months After Elections

In Belgium, almost eight months after the elections and about seven months of coalition negotiations, a new government has been sworn in, Le Soir reports.  

Flemish nationalist Bart de Wever and his ministers were sworn in by King Philippe on Monday morning. After that, he is to meet with his predecessor, Alexander De Kroo, to hand over power.  

On the same day, de Wever will take part in an informal summit of the 27 leaders of the European Union, which is taking place at the Egmont Palace.  

On Tuesday, at 11:00 a.m. local time, the new prime minister will visit the Royal Palace again and address the king. At 14:00, he will present a general policy statement to the House of Representatives, and on Wednesday, MPs will begin debating it.  

A vote of confidence in the new government is expected to take place on Thursday, after which the coalition will officially begin its work.  

The Belgian parliamentary elections were held in June last year alongside the European Parliament elections. Following them, the king accepted the resignation of the government of Alexander De Kroo, who decided to leave office after the poor result of his liberal party.  

Since mid-July, Bart de Vever had been negotiating a five-party coalition, including the centrist French-speaking party Les Engagés, the French-speaking centre-right Reform Movement (MR), the Dutch-speaking centrist Christian Democratic and Flemish Party (CD&V) and Vooruit (Forward).

On 31 January, representatives of the five parties reached an agreement on the key socio-economic measures of the future government, which allowed them to finalise the process of coalition formation.