Bart 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.
Struck late Friday after seven months of tortuous negotiations, the agreement makes De Wever the first nationalist from Dutch-speaking Flanders to be named Belgian premier.
The 54-year-old, who in recent years has backed off on calls for Flanders to become an independent country, as he took the oath of office before King Philippe, in a ceremony at the royal palace in Brussels.
From there, he was expected to head straight to a gathering of EU leaders a few blocks away, for talks on defence and transatlantic relations.
According to statistics, split between French and Dutch-speaking communities and with a highly complex political system, Belgium has an unenviable record of painfully protracted coalition discussions reaching 541 days back in 2010-2011.
