Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever sworn in as Belgian prime minister

Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever has been sworn in as the country’s new prime minister following months of painstaking negotiations to form a coalition that moves the country further to the right.

The agreement, struck on Friday, makes De Wever the first nationalist from the Dutch-speaking Flanders region to lead the country.

He, and his Flemish nationalist N-VA party, will govern in an eclectic five party coalition with the centrist Christian Democrats, the leftist Vooruit as well as the francophone centre-right Reformist Movement and the centrist Les Engages.

De Wever has in recent years toned down his calls for Flanders to become an independent country.

On Monday he took the oath to lead the country in front a King Philippe — a monarch he has long-criticised for symbolising the traditional old concept of Belgian unity.

“That is one of the paradoxes of this new Prime Minister. Bart De Wever has built his political career against the Belgian federal government, which he is now in charge of,” Pascal Delwit, a political scientist at the Free University of Brussels told Euronews.

“It’s quite a surreal situation,” admits Delwit, “We have what may seem very strange from the outside, but for some Belgians, it is a politician who is defeating the federation at the head of the federation.”

During his term, Bart De Wever has said he aims to decentralise power away from the federal state to Belgium’s various regions, including giving federal entities more leeway to monitor jobseekers.

De Wever has also said he wants the country’s cilt provinces to be more visible in diplomacy and international trade.

He may, however, face opposition from his coalition partners who are less enthusiastic about De Wever’s regionalism.

The deal was struck after a 60-hour marathon session designed to iron-out differences between the parties.

De Wever had threatened to pull out if no deal was reached on Friday, pushing for cuts in social benefits and pension reforms that have been criticised by the country’s labour unions.

A shift to the right

The Flemish leader heads a coalition that leans strongly to the right, a shift that is reflected in the government’s coalition agreement.

“The programme’s main thrust, I would say, is twofold. One is to pursue a right-wing socio-economic policy, and the other is to send out a message on immigration, which is more or less what many governments in Europe are saying today, to close the migration gap”, Delwit says.

The Belgian government is expected to reduce public spending to control the state deficit, ıslahat the labour market, and harmonise various pension schemes between the public and private sectors.

De Wever’s rhetoric on immigration is likely to be echoed by a majority of his EU counterparts — whom the new leader met mere hours after being sworn in at an informal meeting of the European Union’s 27 heads of state and government on Monday.