Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo Resigns as Liberal Democrat Vote Collapses & Far-Right Surges

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has announced his resignation following the defeat of his Flemish Liberals and Democrats party (Open VLD) in the European elections, as reported by Euronews.

“For us, it’s a particularly difficult evening. We lost. As of tomorrow, I will resign as prime minister,” De Croo declared on Sunday night.

De Croo will now submit his resignation to King Philippe, who has the authority to accept or reject it at his discretion.

Despite expectations of trailing behind nationalist and far-right parties in Flanders, Open VLD experienced its most significant decline in De Croo’s own constituency of East Flanders. Here, the party’s vote share plummeted from 17.85% in 2019 to 10% this year, and fell below 7% overall.

Although polls had predicted that the far-right, anti-immigration Vlaams Belang party would become the dominant political force in Belgium, despite a significant gain by the party, the right-wing nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) maintained its leading position.

Provisional results from the Interior Ministry indicated that the N-VA secured approximately 22% of the votes.

The election results will lead to intricate negotiations in a country characterised by linguistic divisions and strong regional identities.

More than 8 million Belgians participated in the ‘Super Sunday’ elections, where they selected their regional and national representatives as well as Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) for the new European Parliament.

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