The Minister-President of Flanders is the head of the Flemish Government, which is the executive branch of the Flemish Region and Flemish Community.
The New Flemish Alliance is a Flemish nationalist, conservative political party in Belgium. The party was founded in 2001 by the right-leaning faction of the centrist-nationalist People's Union (VU). The N-VA is a regionalist, separatist movement that self-identifies with the promotion of civic nationalism. It is part of the Flemish Movement; the party strives for the peaceful and gradual secession of Flanders from Belgium. In recent years it has become the largest party of Flanders as well as of Belgium as a whole, and it participated in the 2014–18 Belgian Government until 9 December 2018.
The Belgian Federal Parliament is the bicameral parliament of Belgium. It consists of the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate. It sits in the Palace of the Nation. The Chamber of Representatives is the primary legislative body; the Senate functions only as a meeting place of the federal communities and regions.
Frank Ignace Georgette Vandenbroucke is a Belgian-Flemish academic and politician of Vooruit who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Social Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo since 2020.
The University of Antwerp is a major Belgian university located in the city of Antwerp. The official abbreviation is UA, but UAntwerpen is more recently used. The University of Antwerp has about 20,000 students, which makes it the third largest university in Flanders. The University of Antwerp is characterised by its high standards in education, internationally competitive research and entrepreneurial approach. It was founded in 2003 after the merger of three smaller universities.
The Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the House of Representatives. It is considered to be the "upper house" of the Federal Parliament. Created in 1831 as a chamber fully equal to the Chamber of Representatives, it has undergone several reforms in the past, most notably in 1993 and 2014. The 2014 elections were the first without a direct election of senators. Instead, the new Senate is composed of members of community and regional parliaments and co-opted members. It is a chamber of the communities and regions and serves as a platform for discussion and reflection about matters between these federated entities. The Senate today plays a minor role in the federal legislative process. However, the Senate, together with the Chamber, has full competence for the Constitution and legislation on the organization and functioning of the Federal State and the federated entities. Since the reform of 2014, it holds about ten plenary sessions a year.
The area within Belgium known as Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde encompasses the bilingual—French and Dutch—Brussels-Capital Region, which coincides with the arrondissement of Brussels-Capital and the surrounding Dutch-speaking area of Halle-Vilvoorde, which in turn coincides with the arrondissement of Halle-Vilvoorde. Halle-Vilvoorde contains several municipalities with language facilities, i.e. municipalities where French-speaking people form a considerable part of the population and therefore have special language rights. This area forms the judicial arrondissement of Brussels, which is the location of a tribunal of first instance, enterprise tribunal and a labour tribunal. It was reformed in July 2012, as part of the sixth Belgian state reform.
The Federal Government of Belgium exercises executive power in the Kingdom of Belgium. It consists of ministers and secretary of state drawn from the political parties which form the governing coalition. The federal government is led by the Prime Minister of Belgium, and Ministers lead ministries of the government. Ministers together form the Council of Ministers, which is the supreme executive organ of the Government.
Geert Albert Bourgeois is a Belgian politician of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which he founded in 2001, who is currently serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. He previously served as the Minister-President of Flanders from 2014 to 2019. Prior to this, he was a member of the federal Chamber of Representatives for the People's Union from 1995 to 2001, and then for the N-VA from 2001 to 2004. He has been involved in local and regional politics in Flanders since 1976.
The 2007 Belgian federal election took place on Sunday 10 June 2007. Voters went to the polls in order to elect new members for the Chamber of Representatives and Senate.
Kris Peeters is a Belgian politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish who has been serving as vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) since 2021. Earlier in his career, he was Minister-President of Flanders (2007–2014), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Employment in the government of Prime Minister Charles Michel, and a Member of the European Parliament (2019–2021).
The Speaker of the Flemish Parliament is the presiding member of the Flemish Parliament, which is the legislature of Flanders (Belgium). The Speaker is elected at the beginning of each parliamentary year, on the fourth Monday in September. The Speaker chairs the plenary sessions of the Flemish Parliament and acts as its official representative. He or she determines whether a certain initiative is admissible and thus can be put to parliament at all. The Flemish Ministers take the oath before the Speaker of the Flemish Parliament. Only the head of the Flemish government, the Minister-President of Flanders, takes the oath before the King. The Speaker also presides over the Bureau and the Extended Bureau of the Flemish Parliament. He or she is assisted by four Deputy Speakers.
Steven Vanackere, is a Belgian politician from Flanders and member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V). He held the portfolios of Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Institutional Reform in the Leterme II government. He is the son of Leo Vanackere, who, following a political career as a Member of the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate of Belgium, became the Provincial Governor of West Flanders in 1979. His grandfather, Remi Wallays, had also been a senator and had been a former Mayor of Wevelgem.
Maria Bertha Charlotte (Mieke) Vogels Belgian politician from Flanders in the environmentalist party Groen!.
Alexander De Croo is a Belgian politician and businessman who has served as Prime Minister of Belgium since October 2020.
Elections for the Federal Parliament were held in Belgium on 13 June 2010, during the midst of the 2007-11 Belgian political crisis. After the fall of the previous Leterme II Government over the withdrawal of Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats from the government the King dissolved the legislature and called new elections. The New Flemish Alliance, led by Bart De Wever, emerged as the plurality party with 27 seats, just one more than the francophone Socialist Party, led by Elio Di Rupo, which was the largest party in the Wallonia region and Brussels. It took a world record 541 days until a government was formed, resulting in a government led by Di Rupo.
Kim Geybels is a Belgian politician and a former member of the Belgian Senate for the N-VA and is a former Chairman of the youth wing of the N-VA. Soon after her resignation she tried to retrieve her seat as Senator, claiming she was "forced" by the N-VA to resign. Early October 2010 all procedures, as started by Geybels, to retrieve her Senate seat had failed.
Liesbeth Homans is a Belgian politician and is affiliated to Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie. She was elected as a member of the Flemish Parliament in 2009 and as a member of the Belgian Senate in 2010.
Theo Kelchtermans is a Belgian politician.
