The leader of the Flemish rightwing N-VA party Bart De Wever has indicated that he is willing to become Belgium's Prime Minister after the elections, "if that can bring about a breakthrough".
While De Wever is not formally a candidate to become Prime Minister, he fell back on the position that he would be "willing to take on the responsibility" of leading the country if that helps to make a confederal change possible.
De Wever told De Tijd he is prepared to lead the country "If it can bring about a substantive breakthrough." With Alexander De Croo in his sights, De Wever accused the PM of implementing the programme of the French-speaking socialist party.
In May, he already indicated that he is considering the scenario of quickly setting up a "mini-cabinet" (composed only of the Prime Minister and deputies) to "agree on some minimum targets", shifting the federal focus to issues such as the national budget and a confederal change.
Fighting the far-right
As a federal nation, Belgium is divided into different smaller federated states (known as regions). As such, power is not centralised in one overarching government but shared between the central level and these semi-autonomous regions.
Confederalism, however, would give more powers and competencies to these regions, making them independent and autonomous sovereign states (voluntarily) deciding to cooperate – which is what De Wever and his party want from another state reform.
De Wever would be open to leading such a mini-cabinet, although his party are not convinced it will come to that. When he made similar statements in 2020, it had the opposite effect: the Francophone socialist PS party closed all doors.
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However, more than the premiership, the fight against the Flemish far-right Vlaams Belang party seems to be top of mind for N-VA, as Vlaams Belang is making gains in the polls and is fishing in the same electoral pond as N-VA.
The greater the people's aversion to the current Federal Government coalition becomes, the more difficult it is for De Wever to tell his electorate that he does not want to govern with Vlaams Belang – because what he has in mind is not cooperation with the far-right party, but its destruction, he suggested.
In one of De Wever's quintessential references to the Rome Empire and the destruction of Ancient Carthage, he added the Latin phrase 'Ceterum censeo Vlaams Belang esse delendam,' which literally means: "Furthermore, I consider that Vlaams Belang must be destroyed."
