De Croo government

The De Croo government has been the government of Belgium since October 1st, 2020 . With it, Belgium got a government with a parliamentary majority 494 days after the parliamentary elections on May 26, 2019 and for the first time since December 2018. It replaced the Wilmès II government, which was formed as a transitional solution in March 2020 .

Government formation

On September 30, 2020, Open VLD , MR , PS , sp.a , CD&V , Ecolo and Groen agreed on a coalition called the “Vivaldi Coalition” with Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) as Prime Minister.

This was preceded by several unsuccessful attempts to form a government after the parliamentary elections in May 2019 . In view of the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium , the previous transitional government under Sophie Wilmès , consisting of the remaining three parties MR , OpenVLD and CD&V , received a large majority of nine parties and 84 to 44 votes in the House of Representatives on March 19, 2020 . Only the right-wing Flemish N-VA , the right-wing extremist Flemish Vlaams Belang and the communist PVDA / PTB voted against. The Wilmès II government was the same as the previous Wilmès I government and the Prime Minister promised to put the vote of confidence after six months.

In May, the chairmen of the social democratic parties Paul Magnette (PS) and Conner Rousseau (sp.a) started new explorations. They came to the conclusion that the only possible government configuration would be a minority cabinet of socialists, liberals and Christian Democrats that would be tolerated by the Greens. Wilmès was to form this government. The party leaders of the three governing parties refused to do this and instead wanted to form an “Arizona” coalition with the Flemish Socialists (sp.a), the Flemish Nationalists (N-VA) and the Francophone Christian Democrats (cDH).

However, this would have meant that the Francophone Socialists (PS) would continue to be excluded from the government. Therefore they negotiated with the Flemish nationalists (N-VA), which the party chairman Paul Magnette had previously categorically rejected. On July 20, 2020, the King appointed him and the Chairman of the N-VA, Bart De Wever , to be informators ; The Christian Democratic parties CDH and CD&V were also involved in the talks. Nevertheless, there was still a lack of six votes for a majority, for which Liberals or Greens should be won, which both party families rejected. This attempt failed on August 14, 2020.

Now the king has appointed the chairman of the Flemish Liberals (Open VLD), Egbert Lachaert , and the Francophone Socialists (PS), Paul Magnette , as informateurs. They were able to get the socialist, green and liberal parties as well as the Flemish Christian Democrats to hold talks. This formation was named "Vivaldi Coalition" because it is the first coalition of four party families, based on the violin concertos The Four Seasons by Vivaldi. The Francophone Christian Democrats (cDH) preferred to go into the opposition in view of their considerable loss of votes in the 2019 parliamentary elections. The two chairmen were appointed “pre-formateurs” on September 4th due to the successful explorations and a “formateur” was to be appointed to form a government on September 11th, before Sophie Wilmès on September 17th, exactly six months after the formation of her temporary minority government who would ask the vote of confidence.

Since Egbert Lachaert became infected with the corona virus during the probes, the formation of the government and the vote of confidence, which has now been scheduled for October 1, were postponed again. Again on September 20, the Vivaldi coalition was on the verge of failure, before Paul Magnette and Alexander De Croo were commissioned by King Philippe as "formats" to form a government on September 23 . The deadline was extended again on September 28, and on September 30 the seven parties agreed on a coalition agreement, which was confirmed by the parties on the same day.

The new government was sworn in on October 1, 2020 and has the constitutional maximum of 15 members, plus five state secretaries:

Political party	Minister including Prime Minister	State secretory mentary	Seats Chamber 2020
PS	3	1	19th
MR	2	1	14th
Ecolo	2	1	13th
Open VLD	2	1	12th
CD&V	2	1	12th
spa	2	-	9
Great	2	-	8th
total	15th	5	87 of 150

On October 3, 2020, the government won the constitutionally required vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies with 87 votes (government parliamentary groups and non-attached MEP Emir Kir ) and 54 against ( N-VA , Vlaams Belang , PVDA / PTB , non-attached MEP Jean-Marie Dedecker ) and seven Abstentions ( CDH and DéFI ).

The two parties with the highest vote in Belgium, N-VA and Vlaams Belang , criticized the fact that the coalition does not have a majority among the Flemish MPs and that Flanders has to pay but is not allowed to participate. They accused the Flemish Christian Democrats and Liberals, with whom they had previously formed the federal government under Charles Michel and with whom they formed the Flemish regional government, of "treason".

composition

In addition to the Prime Minister, the government consists of seven Deputy Prime Ministers and seven Ministers as well as five State Secretaries. The deputy prime ministers, one from each ruling party, and the prime minister form the "core", a small government cabinet that discusses the guidelines:

Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister	Surname		Political party		Term of office
prime minister		Alexander De Croo		Open VLD	since October 1, 2020
Deputy Prime Minister Economy and work		Pierre-Yves Dermagne		PS	since October 1, 2020
Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Affairs, Foreign Trade and Federal Cultural Institutions		Sophie Wilmès		MR	since October 1, 2020
Deputy Prime Minister Mobility responsible for the National Society of Belgian Railways		George Gilkinet		Ecolo	since October 1, 2020
Deputy Prime Minister of Finance responsible for combating tax fraud		Vincent Van Peteghem		CD&V	since October 1, 2020
Deputy Prime Minister Social Affairs and Public Health		Frank Vandenbroucke		Vooruit	since October 1, 2020
Deputy Prime Minister, Civil Service Affairs and Public Enterprises		Petra De Sutter		Great	since October 1, 2020
Deputy Prime Minister of Justice		Vincent Van Quickenborne		Open VLD	since October 1, 2020
minister	Surname		Political party		Term of office
Medium-Sized Enterprises, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Agriculture, Institutional Reforms and Democratic Renewal		David Clarinval		MR	since October 1, 2020
Pensions and social integration responsible for the disabled and poverty reduction		Karine Lalieux		PS	since October 1, 2020
defense		Ludivine Dedonder		PS	since October 1, 2020
Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and the Green Deal		Zakia Khattabi		Ecolo	since October 1, 2020
Home Affairs, Institutional Reforms and Democratic Renewal		Annelies Verlinden		CD&V	since October 1, 2020
Development cooperation responsible for large cities		Meryame Kitir		Vooruit	since October 1, 2020
energy		Tinne Van der Straeten		Great	since October 1, 2020
State Secretaries	Surname		Political party		Term of office
Revitalization and strategic investments responsible for research policy (State Secretary at the Minister for Economic Affairs and Labor)		Thomas Dermine		PS	since October 1, 2020
Digitization responsible for reducing bureaucracy, protecting privacy and building management (State Secretary to the Prime Minister)		Mathieu Michel		MR	since October 1, 2020
Gender equality and equal opportunities (State Secretary in the Ministry for Mobility)		Sarah Schlitz		Ecolo	since October 1, 2020
Asylum and Migration in charge of the National Lottery (State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior and Institutional Reforms)		Sammy Mahdi		CD&V	since October 1, 2020
Budget and consumer protection responsible for the North Sea (State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice)		Eva De Bleeker		Open VLD	since October 1, 2020

Alexander De Croo is the 53rd Prime Minister of Belgium. The government is significantly younger than the previous governments with a median age of 44.1 years. The youngest is State Secretary Sammy Mahdi at 32, the oldest is Vice Prime Minister Frank Vandenbroucke at 64. In addition to the rejuvenation, 15 of the twenty government members are also in a federal government office for the first time.

This government is the first in Belgium to include seven parties and the first to include four party families (Socialists, Liberals, Christian Democrats and Greens). In the last decades the federal coalitions in Belgium were mostly "tripartite", they consisted of three party families, like the last regular government Michel I of liberals, Christian Democrats and nationalists (called "La Suèdoise").

For the first time in Belgium's history , the cabinet is made up of ten women and ten men, even though only two of the seven Vice Prime Ministers are women, who thus make up only 25% in the “core”. With Petra de Sutter, a transgender woman becomes a minister in Belgium for the first time .

For the first time in the history of Belgium, all members of the government took the oath in at least French and Dutch , many and a.o. Alexander de Croo also in the third national language, German .

The government declaration lasted less than twenty minutes, and the Belgian Chamber of Deputies met for the first time in the Brussels seat of the European Parliament to ensure the distance rules due to the corona pandemic . Prime Minister De Croo called on "to restore confidence". He promised "constructive, trusting and respectful" government work. Then he went to the European building a few hundred meters away for his first EU summit .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Der Standard: Liberal De Croo is to become the new head of government of Belgium
2. ^ Antoine Clevers: Sophie Wilmès aux députés: "Je serai une partenaire loyale" . La Libre Belgique from March 20, 2020, pages 18-19, online
3. ↑ Bart De Wever and Paul Magnette throw in the towel. grenzecho.net, August 14, 2020, accessed August 15, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Belgium: The government Wilmes can continue to work until October 1. VRT , September 10, 2020, accessed on September 11, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Chamber of Deputies: COMPOSITION POLITIQUE - POLITIEKE SAMENSTELLING , as of September 24, 2020 (PDF; 58 KB)
6. ↑ VRT: Regering-De Croo krijgt vertrouwen van de Kamer, Maggie De Block says fractieleider voor Open VLD
7. ^ Jacques Hermans: "La Flandre paye, mais elle ne décidera pas" . La Libre Belgique , 1st October 2020 edition, page 5
8. ↑ Het Laatste Nieuws : Wallonië mag bepalen en Vlaanderen betalen ”: oppositie torpedeert regeerakkoord
9. ^ Belgian Government: Composition
10. ↑ ^{a b} L'installation du gouvernement De Croo Ier . La Libre Belgique , October 2, 2020 edition, pages 4–9