After eight months of negotiations, once (relatively) short for the country, Belgium has finally formed a new government. Bart de Wever, the leader of the Flemish nationalist party of the N-Va (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantiethe new Flemish alliance), which at the European Parliament sits in the benches of the conservatives and reformists Ecr, together with Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.
As often happens in the country, where a totally proportional electoral system applies and in which political fragmentation is very wide, to support the executive it will be a very heterogeneous coalition. In addition to the N-Vio there will be the Liberal Francophone Party Movement Movement (MR) of the center-right, the French-speaking centrists Les Engagésthe Christian-Democratic and Flemish Centrist Centrar (Christen-Democratisch en vlaamsCD & V), but also the Flemish socialists of Vooruit (Next), whose adhesion is creating controversy within the PSE.
Arizona coalition
The coalition is called “Arizona” because the colors of the parties are similar to those of the American federated state (red, yellow, orange and blue) and takes the place of the coalition known as the “Vivaldi”, because the four seasons of the composer they represented the four political ideologies that united.
The program includes a reduction in unemployment subsidies, a pension reform, an increase in defense spending on two percent in 2029, a narrow on the reception of asylum seekers, a relaunch of nuclear power and the ban on smoking in the terraces of the bars and restaurants.
The leader
Bart de Wever is mayor of Antwerp and has always been among the proponents of the secession of Flanders from Belgium. A bit like between the brothers of Italy and the League, his party is considered radical right, but is in competition with another party considered even more radical, Vlaams Belang (Flemish interest), ally of Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini in the party of the patriots of Europe launched by the Hungarian Viktor Orban.
If the N-Va is part of the ECR group at the European Parliament, political training has never agreed to enter the Conservatories and Reformist Party and has also tried to join the Liberal Group in Brussels.