Sixteen months after an election that did not produce any conclusive result, Belgium has a new Prime Minister.
44-year-old Flemish liberal leader and member of the Open Vld party Alexander De Croo was announced as the new Prime Minister of Belgium, 493 days after inconclusive election.
He will replace the French-speaking liberal leader Sophie Wilmes, who served as the acting premier but did not wield a parliamentary majority. Wilmes gave her successor an interesting gift when leaving office: a vinyl record of ‘The Four Seasons’ by Antonio Vivaldi.
De Croo will lead the 7-party Vivaldi coalition of Flemish and Francophone socialists, liberals and greens (spa and PS; MR and Open Vld; Ecolo and Groen) and Flemish Christian democrats (CD&V).
The son of a lifelong politician Herman De Croo, Alexander has held various federal minister posts: from 2014 to 2018 he was minister for development cooperation and the digital agenda, along with telecommunications and post. In 2018, he held the position of the finance minister. He has also served as the vice Prime Minister twice, once under the socialist Elio Di Rupo from 2012 to 2014 and subsequently with the French-speaking liberals from 2014 to 2019, in his political career, which started in 2009.
However, Alexander De Croo started off his career working in the private sector, which includes a stint as a business consultant at the Boston Consulting Group.
Since the collapse of the Charles Michel government 21 months ago, Belgium did not have any governing majority.
Alexander De Croo will sworn in by the King Philippe, the king of Belgium, soon.
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