Belgium moves to right as new PM De Wever sworn in

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Conservative Bart De Wever was sworn in on Monday as Belgium’s new prime minister, after striking a hard-fought coalition deal that moves the country to the right.

Reached after seven months of tortuous negotiations, the agreement makes De Wever the first nationalist from Dutch-speaking Flanders to be named Belgian premier. A law-and-order candidate whose coalition has already promised to crack down on irregular migration, De Wever’s rise to power reinforces a marked right-wing shift in European politics.

The 54-year-old, who in recent years has backed off on calls for Flanders to become an independent country, took the oath of office before King Philippe at the royal palace in Brussels. From there, he headed straight to a gathering of EU leaders a few blocks away, for talks on defence and transatlantic relations -- quipping to reporters that he was “jumping right in”.

On the day’s headline topic, De Wever said Belgium was committed to meeting Nato’s longstanding defence spending target of two percent of GDP, up from 1.3 percent at present. “Europe has been a bit lazy on the topic of defence,” he said -- arguing that Russian President Vladimir “Putin has woken us up.”