After agreement on the coalition
New legal government of Belgium sworn in
Almost eight months after the election, a government led by the right party N-VA is in office for the first time in Belgium. Does the country move much further to the right?
Belgium has a new, right government. The cabinet around Prime Minister Bart de Wever from the Flemish nationalist party N-VA took the oath 240 days after the election in the royal palace in Brussels. De Wever swore this in the three official languages of Belgium – French, Dutch and German. The 54-year-old was so far mayor of the port city of Antwerp. “And now to work,” he wrote after swearing in on the X.
Drastic right pressure in Belgium not to be expected
The migration-critical Flemish nationalists of the N-VA had succeeded in the late Friday evening to agree on the formation of a coalition with four other parties. The N-VA will lead the federal government in Belgium for the first time. Despite the government participation of the N-VA, who is victorious in the election in June, a drastic shift to the right is not to be expected in Belgium. The background is that the other parties in the middle together continue to have a clear majority in the coalition.
The so-called Arizona coalition includes the Liberal Party MR and the Center Party Les Engagés from French-speaking Wallonia as well as the Flemish Christian Democrats (CD & V) and Social Democrats (Vooruit). The name results from the colors of the parties that match the flag of the US state: orange (CD & V), blue (MR and Les Engagés), red (vooruit) and yellow (n-VA).
Four ministers in the new government
In addition to the Prime Minister, the N-VA occupies the post of Minister of Defense (Theo Francken), the Minister of Migration (Anneleen van Bossuyt) and that of the finance minister (Jan Jambon) in the new government. Jambon had already been Minister of the Interior, Francken State Secretary for Asylum and Migration between 2014 and 2018 under the then Liberal Prime Minister Charles Michel. The new Belgian Foreign Minister is Maxime Prévot from the Les Engagés Party. In addition to Prime Minister De Wever, a total of ten ministers and four ministers form the new cabinet.
dpa
Source: Stern
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