Tomorrow, Monday 10 June, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo will resign. The announcement came shortly after the polls closed, which saw his liberal party collapse to around 5.9% of the vote. “From tomorrow I will be a resigning prime minister,” announced De Croo without being able to hold back his tears. “It’s a particularly difficult evening for us, we lost,” said the Belgian liberal prime minister, who complimented the Flemish right-wing parties, the real winners of the national elections. «I assume my responsibilities, from tomorrow – he added – I will be a resigning prime minister and I will concentrate on managing current affairs». Today in Belgium we voted not only for the European elections but for all the main institutions.
Belgian citizens were called to vote for the 150 deputies of the Federal Parliament, the 124 of the Flemish Assembly (6 of whom were elected in Brussels), the 89 members of the parliamentary body of the Brussels Capital Region, the 75 deputies of the Walloon Assembly and the 24 of the legislative body of the German-speaking community. Pre-election polls published in recent weeks seemed to suggest that Belgium would not escape the rise of the far right either. Vlaam Belang, the Flemish nationalist party led by Tom van Grieken, obtained 21% of the vote, but was unable to overtake the conservatives of the New Flemish Alliance (25%). Among the political forces that have lost consensus the most are the liberals of Alexander De Croo, who has held the role of Prime Minister of Belgium since 2020.
On the cover: Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo (EPA/Olivier Matthys)
