Bart De Wever facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Bart De Wever
Official portrait, 2025
Prime Minister of Belgium
Incumbent
Assumed office 3 February 2025
Monarch	Philippe
Deputy	See list Jan Jambon David Clarinval Maxime Prévot Frank Vandenbroucke Vincent Van Peteghem
Preceded by	Alexander De Croo
Mayor of Antwerp
In office 1 January 2013 – 3 February 2025
Preceded by	Patrick Janssens
Succeeded by	Els van Doesburg
President of the New Flemish Alliance
In office 24 October 2004 – 3 February 2025
Preceded by	Geert Bourgeois
Succeeded by	Steven Vandeput (acting)
Member of the Chamber of Representatives
In office 10 July 2024 – 3 February 2025
Constituency	Antwerp
In office 19 June 2014 – 25 April 2019
Constituency	Antwerp
In office 28 June 2007 – 30 June 2009
Constituency	Antwerp
Member of the Flemish Parliament
In office 18 June 2019 – 8 June 2024
Constituency	Antwerp
In office 6 July 2004 – 28 June 2007
Constituency	Antwerp
Member of the Senate
In office 6 July 2010 – 9 January 2013
Appointed by	Flemish Parliament
Succeeded by	Wilfried Vandaele
Personal details
Born	Bart Albert Liliane De Wever (1970-12-21) 21 December 1970 (age 54) Mortsel, Belgium
Political party	New Flemish Alliance (2001–present)
Other political affiliations	People's Union (until 2001)
Spouse	Veerle Hegge
Children	4
Residence	Deurne, Belgium
Alma mater	Catholic University of Leuven

Bart Albert Liliane De Wever ( born 21 December 1970) is a Belgian politician currently serving as the Prime Minister of Belgium since February 2025. From 2004 to 2025, De Wever had been the leader of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a political party advocating for the transformation of Belgium into a confederal state. From January 2013 to February 2025, he was Mayor of Antwerp, following the 2012 municipal elections.

Biography

Bart De Wever in 2011.

De Wever was born in Mortsel and grew up in Kontich, where his parents Irene and Henri owned a small supermarket. His father had previously worked for a Belgian railway company and was briefly active in the Vlaamse Militanten Orde before becoming a local administrator for the Volksunie. De Wever's older brother is historian and professor Bruno de Wever, who teaches at Ghent University. His grandfather had been the secretary of the Flemish National Union, a Flemish far-right party from the interwar period that had been recognised as the ruling party of Flanders during the Nazi occupation of Belgium. However, during an interview, Bart De Wever nuanced his grandfather's past by claiming he had not collaborated with the Nazis.

De Wever began studying a law degree at the University of Antwerp, but dropped out before switching to study History at Saint Ignatius University Centre, Antwerp and then the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), graduating with a licentiate (equivalent of the master's degree) followed by a PhD in History. As a student he was a member of the classical liberal Liberaal Vlaams Studentenverbond (LVSV, Liberal Flemish Students' Union) and the conservative Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond (KVHV, Catholic Flemish Students' Union) of Antwerp and Leuven. He is a former editor-in-chief of the KVHV newspapers Tegenstroom (magazine of KVHV in Antwerp) and Ons Leven (in Leuven). After graduating, he was employed as a research assistant working on the Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging (New Encyclopedia of the Flemish Movement) and published a biography of controversial Flemish politician Joris Van Severen.

De Wever is married to a Dutch national, with whom he has four children. They live together in Deurne. In 2012, De Wever undertook a crash diet and lost 60 kilos. His physical transformation was noted by the Belgian media and he subsequently published a book advising on weight loss. De Wever has cited marathon running as his main interest outside of politics.

In addition to Dutch, De Wever speaks French, English and German.

Political career

De Wever initially started his political career as a member of the Volksunie (People's Union) party, which his father had belonged to, and was elected as a municipal councilor in Berchem for the party. During the ideological splits in the Volksunie, De Wever became part of the so-called Oranjehofgroep along with Frieda Brepoels, Eric Defoort, Ben Weyts and Geert Bourgeois. The Oranjehofgroup was a political clique within the Volksunie composed of right-wing, conservative-liberal and Flemish nationalist members who opposed the left-orientated direction the party was being taken under Bert Anciaux. The members of the Oranjehofgroep would later found the N-VA together. In 2004, he was elected as party leader of the N-VA with 95% of the votes, being the only candidate up for election. Initially, the N-VA had followed the political style of the People's Union by characterizing itself as a big tent party; however, under De Wever's leadership the N-VA took on a conservative identity and has seen a rise in support since.

De Wever went through a rough stretch in 2006, when he accepted the conservative-liberal Jean-Marie Dedecker as an N-VA member, causing a split with the CD&V party. In order to reconcile the party, Dedecker had to leave. Although he was extensively criticised, the local N-VA leaders permitted De Wever to remain as N-VA president.

In the 2009 regional elections, his party won an unexpectedly high 13% of the votes, making N-VA the overall winner of the elections together with old cartel partner CD&V. N-VA subsequently joined the government, with De Wever choosing to remain party president and appointing two other party members as ministers in the Flemish Government and one party member as speaker of the Flemish Parliament.

Under his presidency his party gained around 30% of the votes in Flanders during federal elections held on 13 June 2010. De Wever himself won the most preference votes of the Dutch-speaking region (nearly 800,000).

De Wever visited former British Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street on a number of occasions and maintained contact with Boris Johnson during his time as Mayor of London.

After the 2019 federal election, De Wever has shown interest to make a new political centre-right movement. His goal is to reduce the number of political parties in parliament and go to a more American and British style parliament with fractions within larger parties (drawing on the Conservative and Labour and Republican Party and Democratic Party dualism in the UK and USA respectively). De Wever has expressed his desire to attract CD&V, Open VLD and some Vlaams Belang voters. Joachim Coens, former leader of CD&V, supports the idea and argues it would make future government formations easier.

In November 2020, he was reelected leader of the N-VA with 96.8% of the votes for a new three-year mandate. This made De Wever the longest serving leader of a Belgian political party.

Following the Palestinian attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the subsequent 2023 Israel-Hamas conflict, De Wever called for the Belgian Army to be deployed to protect Jewish sites in Antwerp.

2010 Belgian federal election

An early election was held on 13 June 2010, resulting in the N-VA winning most votes in the Dutch-speaking areas and the Socialist Party (PS) in French-speaking Belgium. Nationally the two parties were almost even with 27 seats for the N-VA and 26 for the PS, the remaining seats being split between ten other parties. For 541 days after the elections, no agreement could be reached among the parties on a coalition to form a new government and during that period the country continued to be governed by an interim government. On 6 December 2011, the Di Rupo I Government was sworn in. De Wever and the N-VA were not included in the makeup of this government.

Regarding the 25 May 2014 federal election, PS party leader Elio Di Rupo noted that his party would be unwilling to enter into a dialogue with De Wever and the N-VA regarding forming a new federal government.

2024 Belgian federal election

In the 2024 federal and the regional election in Flanders, De Wever's N-VA became the largest party in the Chamber of Representatives, narrowly beating the competing Vlaams Belang, though obtained the same number of seats as VB in the Flemish Parliament. On 10 July, the king appointed De Wever formateur, making him responsible for forming the next government, of which he is likely to become prime minister. De Wever is expected to report back to the king on 24 July.

Political positions

Politically, De Wever calls himself a conservative and a Flemish nationalist. He is an avowed admirer of Edmund Burke and his political philosophy, and has described British conservative writer and social critic Theodore Dalrymple, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek as influences. De Wever has also written opinion columns and essays for De Morgen and De Standaard which he published as a book titled The Precious Fabric of Society in 2008.

Publications

• 2023: About Woke (Borgerhoff & Lamberigts)
• 2021: Do Civilizations Collide? with Khalid Benhaddou [nl]
• 2018: About Identity (Borgerhoff & Lamberigts)
• 2011: Freedom and Integrity with Theodore Dalrymple (Pelckmans)
• 2011: Workable Values (Pelckmans)
• 2008: The Precious Fabric of Society. Five years of Social Criticism (Pelckmans)

See also

In Spanish: Bart De Wever para niños