This article was originally published in English
M. de Croo will now submit his resignation to King Philippe, who has the power to reject it at his discretion.
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Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced his resignation after the defeat of his party, the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD), in the European elections.
“For us, this is a particularly difficult evening. We have lost. From tomorrow I will resign as Prime Minister“, announced Mr. De Croo, visibly moved, during a speech given on Sunday to his supporters.
Mr De Croo will now present his resignation to King Philip, who has the power to reject it at his discretion.
Although expected to be left behind by nationalist and far-right parties in Flanders, the Open VLD suffered its biggest decline in Mr De Croo’s constituency in East Flanders, where his list went from 17.85% in 2019 to 10% this time around – and less than 7% overall.
Although polls predicted that the far-right, anti-immigration Vlaams Belang party would become the main political force in the country of 11.5 million people, the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a right-wing nationalist party, retained its first place, with 22% of the voteaccording to provisional results provided by the Ministry of the Interior.
Sunday’s results will lead to complex negotiations in a country divided by language and deep regional identities. Belgium is divided along linguistic lines, with French-speaking Wallonia to the south and Dutch-speaking Flanders to the north, and governments are invariably formed by coalitions made up of parties from both regions.
Belgium holds the world record for the longest time to form a governmenta government coalition having been appointed in December 2021 after a total of 541 days of negotiations.
More than 8 million Belgians voted on what was called “Super Sunday” to choose their regional and national representatives and their MEPs in the new European Parliament.
