De Croo Government

The De Croo Government is the incumbent Federal Government of Belgium, to be led by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo from 1 October 2020.

De Croo Government
98th Cabinet of Belgium (since 1830)
Incoming
Date formed	1 October 2020
People and organisations
Head of state	Philippe of Belgium
Head of government	Alexander De Croo
No. of ministers	15
Member parties	Open Vld (Flemish) MR (Francophone) sp.a (Flemish) PS (Francophone) CD&V (Flemish) Ecolo (Francophone) Groen (Flemish)
Status in legislature	Majority coalition 87 / 150
Opposition parties	N-VA (Flemish) Vlaams Belang (Flemish) cdH (Francophone) DéFI (Francophone) PVDA-PTB
History
Election(s)	2019 Belgian federal election
Legislature term(s)	2019–2024
Predecessor	Wilmès II

Distribution of seats in the Chamber of Representatives.

History

The creation of the De Croo Government occurred on 1 October 2020, 494 days after the 2019 Belgian federal election of May 2019 as the 2019–20 Belgian government formation had been again a difficult process. The government replaced the minority Wilmès II Government, which was a temporary government instated to handle the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak. The De Croo Government is a so-called Vivaldi coalition, named after composer Antonio Vivaldi due to his work The Four Seasons which corresponds to the four different political views present in this coalition: the liberals (Open Vld and MR), the socialists (sp.a and PS), the greens (Groen and Ecolo) and the Christian democrats of CD&V.

Most notably this government doesn't have a majority in the Flemish language group, as the two largest political parties in Flanders (indeed in all of Belgium) are part of the opposition: N-VA and Vlaams Belang. Other opposition parties are the Francophone parties cdH and DéFI and the nationwide PVDA-PTB.[1]

Composition

The Constitution requires an equal number of Dutch- and French-speaking ministers (regardless of the Prime Minister) and with all parties requiring some positions, the number of members in the Government has increased considerably, from 12 to 14 ministers with an additional 5 extra Secretaries of State for a total of 7 extra members in the Government compared to the previous Wilmès II Government.

With several new parties coming in to the government and many existing parties replacing their ministers, only three ministers remain which were already present in the Wilmès II Government: Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (who was Minister of Development Cooperation, Finance and fighting Fiscal Fraud), the previous Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès who now becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs and David Clarinval who moves from Minister of Budget, Civil Service, National Lottery and Scientific Policy to Minister of the Middle Class, SMEs, Self-employed, Agriculture, and Institutional Affairs. A large number of government members were relatively unknown at the time of their appointment, as several parties decided to opt for new faces instead of familiar ones. One notable returnee is Frank Vandenbroucke who, after a nine-year break from politics, returns to become Minister of Health and Social Affairs, and has held multiple positions in the period 1994–2009, including Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Social Affairs, Labor, and Pensions.

Portfolio	Minister		Took office	Left office	Party
Prime Minister
Prime Minister		Alexander De Croo	1 October 2020	Incumbent	Open Vld
Deputy Prime Ministers
Minister of Finance		Vincent Van Peteghem	1 October 2020	Incumbent	CD&V
Minister of Mobility and the National Railway Company		Georges Gilkinet	1 October 2020	Incumbent	ECOLO
Minister of Civil Service		Petra De Sutter	1 October 2020	Incumbent	Groen
Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs, Trade, and bicultural institutions		Sophie Wilmès (replaced during illness by David Clarinval)	1 October 2020	Incumbent	MR
Minister of Justice and the North Sea		Vincent Van Quickenborne	1 October 2020	Incumbent	Open Vld
Minister of Economy and Employment		Pierre-Yves Dermagne	1 October 2020	Incumbent	PS
Minister of Health and Social Affairs		Frank Vandenbroucke	1 October 2020	Incumbent	sp.a
Ministers
Minister of the Interior		Annelies Verlinden	1 October 2020	Incumbent	CD&V
Minister of Defence		Ludivine Dedonder	1 October 2020	Incumbent	PS
Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development		Zakia Khattabi	1 October 2020	Incumbent	ECOLO
Minister of Energy		Tinne Van der Straeten	1 October 2020	Incumbent	Groen
Minister of the Middle Class, SMEs, Self-employed, Agriculture, and Institutional Affairs		David Clarinval	1 October 2020	Incumbent	MR
Minister of Development Cooperation and Urban Policy		Meryame Kitir	1 October 2020	Incumbent	sp.a
Minister of Pensions, Social Integration, Fighting Poverty and Disabled Persons		Karine Lalieux	1 October 2020	Incumbent	PS
Secretaries of State
Secretary of State for Scientific Policy and Exit Policy		Thomas Dermine	1 October 2020	Incumbent	PS
Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration		Sammy Mahdi	1 October 2020	Incumbent	CD&V
Secretary of State for Digital Agenda, Administrative Simplification, Privacy and Property Management		Mathieu Michel (politician)	1 October 2020	Incumbent	MR
Secretary of State for Budget and Consumer Affairs		Eva De Bleeker	1 October 2020	Incumbent	Open Vld
Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Equal Rights and Diversity		Sarah Schlitz	1 October 2020	Incumbent	ECOLO
Commissioners
Commissioner charged with fighting the consequences of the Coronavirus		Pedro Facon	6 October 2020	Incumbent	Independent

References

1. VRT NWS (2020-09-30). "7 partijen hebben een inhoudelijk akkoord om samen te regeren: dit weten we daar al over" [7 parties have an internal agreement to govern: this is what we know already]. vrtnws.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 2020-09-30.