Bart De Wever
Bart De Wever became Prime Minister of Belgium in February 2025, an outcome that would once have been a contradiction in terms: he leads a Flemish nationalist party whose long-term aim is the dissolution of the Belgian state. Born in Mortsel near Antwerp in 1970 into a family active in the Flemish movement, he studied history at Leuven and specialised in the interwar Flemish nationalist parties. He joined the Volksunie and, when it split in 2001, helped found the New Flemish Alliance, becoming its leader in 2004 when it held almost nothing. He built it into the largest party in Flanders and in Belgium, partly through a media presence unusual for a Belgian politician — including a stint on a television quiz show — and by pairing nationalism with a fiscally conservative, law-and-order programme aimed at middle-class Flemish voters. He became mayor of Antwerp in 2013, Belgium's largest city and its port, and has held the post since, making drug trafficking through the port a central issue as cocaine seizures rose to European records. The N-VA's 2010 election victory helped produce a 541-day period without a federal government, then a world record. De Wever's strategy shifted from confrontation to what he calls confederalism — hollowing the federal level out by agreement rather than declaring independence. After the June 2024 elections he negotiated for eight months and assembled the five-party Arizona coalition, taking office on a programme of pension reform, budget consolidation and tighter asylum rules. He is a classicist by inclination who has published on Roman history, and stayed mayor of Antwerp throughout the negotiations. He took office more than seven months after the election, a delay that is unremarkable by Belgian standards.
- Lived: 1970 CE – ?
- Nationality: Belgian
- Roles: Prime Minister of Belgium (2025-present)
