Belgium: De Croo Resigns After Liberal Election Defeat

Alexandre De Croo, Belgium’s prime minister, has resigned after the sharp defeat of his Open VLD party in the European elections in Belgium, where legislative and regional elections were also held.

“As of tomorrow, I will be the outgoing prime minister,” De Croo explained late in the evening of June 9, when the election results were announced. “This is a particularly difficult evening for us, we lost. Tomorrow I will resign as prime minister, I will be the outgoing prime minister. But the Liberals are strong, we will be back,” De Croo commented. The resignation was tendered and accepted by King Philip on June 10. We are now working on a new leader, and this is a historically difficult operation in Belgium, a record of 541 days to form a leader was set here in 2010.

The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and the Reformist Movement (MR) were the winners of the triple electoral round on Sunday, June 9.

In Flanders, the extreme right-wing separatist party Vlaams Belang was predicted to have a path to victory, but was left behind by N-VA, while in the south, in Vallonia and in Brussels, the liberal MR won, defeating the Socialists (PS), the favorites the day before.

According to what Politico highlights, both N-VA and MR organized their election campaign promoting economic reforms, defined as “center-right,” in order to reduce the public deficit. The N-VA is also fighting to bring more expertise to the regions, and its leader Bart De Wever emphasized that “Flanders has chosen more autonomy than ever before.”