Bart De Wever
Bart Albert Liliane De Wever is a Belgian politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Belgium since February 2025. From 2004 to 2025, De Wever had been the leader of the New Flemish Alliance, a political party advocating for the transformation of Belgium into a confederal state. From January 2013 to February 2025, he was Mayor of Antwerp, following the 2012 municipal elections.
De Wever presided over his party's victory in the 2010 federal elections when N-VA became the largest party in both Flanders and in Belgium as a whole. He accomplished this again in the subsequent three elections, eventually being tasked with forming a new government by King Philippe following the 2024 elections.
After more than eight months of negotiations between the parties N-VA, Vooruit, CD&V, MR and Les Engagés, it was announced on 31 January 2025 that an agreement had been reached, with De Wever becoming the prime minister-designate. On 3 February 2025, De Wever took the oath of office, becoming the first Flemish nationalist politician to hold the office of prime minister of Belgium.
Origins (1970–1994)
Early life and family
Bart Albert Liliane De Wever was born on 21 December 1970 in Mortsel and grew up in Kontich, where his parents Irene and Henri owned a small supermarket. His father had previously worked for a Belgian railway company and was briefly active in the Vlaamse Militanten Orde before becoming a local administrator for the Volksunie. De Wever's older brother is historian and professor Bruno De Wever, who teaches at Ghent University. His grandfather had been the secretary of the Flemish National Union, a Flemish far-right party from the interwar period that had been recognised as the ruling party of Flanders during the Nazi occupation of Belgium. However, during an interview, Bart De Wever nuanced his grandfather's past by claiming he had not collaborated with the Nazis.Education
De Wever began studying a law degree at the University of Antwerp, but dropped out before switching to study history at Saint Ignatius University Centre, Antwerp and then the Catholic University of Leuven, graduating with a licentiate. As a student he was a member of the classical liberal Liberaal Vlaams Studentenverbond and the conservative Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond of Antwerp and Leuven. He is a former editor-in-chief of the KVHV newspapers Tegenstroom and Ons Leven. After graduating, he was employed as a research assistant working on the Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging, as well as publishing a magazine article on the influence of Joris Van Severen.Political ascent (1994–2012)
Origins
De Wever initially started his political career as a member of the Volksunie party, which his father had belonged to, and was elected as a municipal councilor in Berchem for the party. During the ideological splits in the Volksunie, De Wever became part of the so-called Oranjehofgroep along with Frieda Brepoels, Eric Defoort, Ben Weyts and Geert Bourgeois. The Oranjehofgroup was a political clique within the Volksunie composed of right-wing, conservative-liberal and Flemish nationalist members who opposed the left-orientated direction the party was being taken under Bert Anciaux. The members of the Oranjehofgroep would later found the N-VA together.Early party leadership
In 2004, he was elected as party leader of the N-VA with 95% of the votes, being the only candidate up for election. Initially, the N-VA had followed the political style of the People's Union by characterizing itself as a big tent party; however, under De Wever's leadership the N-VA took on a conservative identity and has seen a rise in support since. De Wever went through a rough stretch in 2006, when he accepted the conservative-liberal Jean-Marie Dedecker as an N-VA member, causing a split with the CD&V party. In order to reconcile the party, Dedecker had to leave. Although he was extensively criticised, the local N-VA leaders permitted De Wever to remain as N-VA president.In 2007, a photograph was released of De Wever attending a conference held by the French extreme-right Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1996 at the Flemish National Debate Club in Antwerp. In response to the controversy, De Wever stated "I had just finished my studies and I thought it was a unique opportunity to hear Le Pen, who was at the time a major figure in French politics. I am a legalist, with democratic convictions, but I have an Anglo-Saxon conception of freedom of expression: in a democracy, everyone must be free to express their opinion, even if it is an opinion that I hate. And I always prefer to have information first-hand rather than in a filtered manner." De Wever later criticized Le Pen as a "a showman who had no answers for anything" and said he had no connections to Le Pen's party.
In October 2007, after then Mayor of Antwerp Patrick Janssens issued an apology for the city's collaboration in the deportation of Jews during World War II, Bart De Wever said that:
After his comments were met with controversy, De Wever issued a personal apology to representatives of Antwerp's Jewish community and in an open letter to De Standaard. Following these events, in an op-ed published in Le Monde, Belgian French-speaking writer Pierre Mertens claimed that Bart De Wever was a "convinced negationist leader". De Wever sued Mertens for this allegation.
2009–10 elections and aftermath
In the 2009 regional elections, his party won an unexpectedly high 13% of the votes, making N-VA the overall winner of the elections together with old cartel partner CD&V. N-VA subsequently joined the government, with De Wever choosing to remain party president and appointing two other party members as ministers in the Flemish Government and one party member as speaker of the Flemish Parliament. Wever visited former British Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street on a number of occasions and maintained contact with Boris Johnson during his time as Mayor of London.An early election was held on 13 June 2010, resulting in the N-VA winning most votes in the Dutch-speaking areas and the Socialist Party in French-speaking Belgium. Nationally the two parties were almost even with 27 seats for the N-VA and 26 for the PS, the remaining seats being split between ten other parties. For 541 days after the elections, no agreement could be reached among the parties on a coalition to form a new government and during that period the country continued to be governed by an interim government. On 6 December 2011, the Di Rupo I Government was sworn in. De Wever and the N-VA were not included in the makeup of this government, although he himself won the most preference votes of the Dutch-speaking region.
2012 local election
In a groundbreaking result during the 2012 local elections, De Wever led the New Flemish Alliance to victory in the city of Antwerp with 37.7% of the vote.Mayoralty of Antwerp (2013–2025)
First term
De Wever's swearing-in as mayor of Antwerp on 1 January 2013 marked the first time since 1933 that a non-socialist politician was mayor of the city. In December 2013, the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws received a bullet in the post with a letter addressed to Bart De Wever, apparently from a communist extremist. De Wever received police protection. In November 2013, De Wever was admitted to hospital with severe anxiety and chest pains. He was readmitted into an intensive care unit in February 2014, with a severe lung infection.2014 federal election
Despite N-VA winning the 2014 federal election with their highest result ever, PS party leader Elio Di Rupo noted that his party would be unwilling to enter into a dialogue with De Wever and the N-VA in forming a new federal government.2018 local election
With a result of 35.3% of the vote, N-VA retained its leadership of Antwerp in the 2018 local elections, securing a second term for De Wever's mayoralty of the city.Second term
In a 2019 interview with Flemish newspaper De Zondag, De Wever argued that mass immigration was impacting on identity, enlightenment and integration, and that immigrants from Muslim backgrounds were more likely to force their beliefs in public over other religious groups, stating "I have not yet seen an Orthodox Jew who wants a counter function in Antwerp. They avoid conflict. That is the difference. Muslims do claim a place in public space, in education, with their outward signs of faith. That creates tensions" while arguing that he supports freedom of religion and worship. He also accused the left of cultural relativism, claiming "The same left that set bras on fire in May '68 is now embracing the headscarf as a symbol of equality. I find that very strange. They wanted to destroy Christianity, but they accept everything about Islam. I call that submission." De Wever's comments were criticised by Socialist Party politician Paul Magnette, who called them "a form of racism." Magnette's comments were in turn refuted by De Wever and N-VA minister Jan Jambon.During the 2019 regional elections, N-VA lost 7 percent of the vote in Flanders compared to their result in 2014. Nevertheless, De Wever persevered as party president. Neither he nor his party entered into the coalition government of 2020, which was headed by Alexander De Croo.
After the 2019 federal election, De Wever began showing interest to make a new political centre-right movement, aiming to reduce the number of political parties in parliament and go to a more American and British style parliament with fractions within larger parties. De Wever expressed his desire to attract CD&V, Open VLD and some Vlaams Belang voters. Joachim Coens, former leader of CD&V, supported the idea and argued it would make future government formations easier.
In November 2020, he was reelected leader of the N-VA with 96.8% of the votes for a new three-year mandate. This made De Wever the longest serving leader of a Belgian political party.
In March 2022, he said during a radio interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not end Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as he is a "psychopath" and a "madman", adding: " said: ‘I will squash the Russians who are against me like mosquitoes’. When did I hear that before? I think here, 70 years ago." De Wever had earlier assessed that Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler were similarly motivated: "Germany was humiliated after the First World War, Russia after the Cold War. In both countries, an autocratic leader emerged with a clear ambition: to undo the humiliation. In Germany, it was Hitler, in Russia, Putin." De Wever went on to explain that this humiliation was taken personally by both men, who had each professionally represented their respective countries : “Both then unexpectedly resorted to irrational behavior. What the Sudetenland was to Hitler, Crimea was to Putin. There are many similarities.”
Following the October 7 attacks in 2023 and the subsequent Gaza war, De Wever called for the Belgian Army to be deployed to protect Jewish sites in Antwerp. During a commemoration for the victims of the October 7 attacks in Antwerp, De Wever stated "there is only one side to choose: that is the side of Israel, the side of democracy and the side of light. Against the forces of tyranny, against the forces of darkness. We know that they have a long arm: the long arm of Tehran, of Hezbollah, of Hamas, which reaches into the streets of Europe." After the speech received some criticism from other Antwerp politicians such members of Vooruit and Groen leader Meyrem Almaci who claimed that both sides should respect human rights, De Wever stated "I have taken sides against terror and against Hamas" and argued that the war had also imported ethnic and sectarian conflicts in Belgium. Vooruit politician Tom Meeuws and deputy Alderman of Antwerp supported De Wever's speech.