The Michel II Government was the

Federal Government of Belgium The Federal Government of Belgium ( nl, Federale regering, french: Gouvernement fédéral, german: Föderalregierung) exercises executive power in the Kingdom of Belgium. It consists of ministers and secretary of state ("junior", or deputy-min ...

, led by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Charles Michel Charles Michel (; born 21 December 1975) is a Belgian politician serving as the president of the European Council since 2019. He previously served as the prime minister of Belgium between 2014 and 2019. Michel became the minister of Developm ...

from 18 December 2018 until 27 October 2019 when it was succeeded by the

Wilmès I Government The Wilmès I Government was a caretaker Federal Government of Belgium, led by Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès, the first ever female Prime Minister of Belgium. History The creation of the Wilmès Government was announced on 26 October 2019, whe ...

. It was a

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

minority coalition cabinet of

Christian Democratic and Flemish Christian Democratic and Flemish (, , CD&V) is a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium. The party has historical ties to both trade unionism (ACV) and trade associations ( UNIZO) and the Farmer's League. Until 2001, the party w ...

(CD&V), the

Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats french: Libéraux et démocrates flamands ouverts , abbreviation = Open Vld , logo = , leader1_title = President , leader1_name = Egbert Lachaert , foundation = 1992 (VLD)2007 (Open Vld) , predecessor = P ...

(Open Vld) and the

Reformist Movement The Reformist Movement (french: Mouvement Réformateur, MR) is a liberal French-speaking political party in Belgium. MR is traditionally a conservative-liberal party, but it also contains social-liberal factions. The party is in coalition as ...

(MR). On 26 October 2019, it was announced that

Sophie Wilmès Sophie Wilmès (; born 15 January 1975) is a Belgian politician who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2019 to 2020. She later served as minister of Foreign Affairs from 2020 to 2022. A member of the Reformist Movement, she is the fir ...

would take over the role of Prime Minister from Michel on 1 November 2019, and form a new government.

History

The government came into existence on 9 December 2018 following the exit of

New Flemish Alliance The New Flemish Alliance ( nl, Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA) is a Flemish nationalist and conservative political party in Belgium. The party was founded in 2001 by the right-leaning fraction of the centrist-nationalist People's Union (VU). ...

(N-VA) from the

Michel I Government The Michel I Government was the Federal Government of Belgium formed following the 2014 Belgian government formation and sworn in on 11 October 2014. The administration was a centre-right coalition of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), the Christ ...

. As the Prime Minister did not offer the government's resignation to the King until the 18th, it is

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these prin ...

ly still the same government as the one that started in 2014, albeit a heavily reshuffled government following the resignation of all N-VA ministers and secretaries of state. Politically, however, it is in an entirely different situation, as it has no support from N-VA and thus operates as a new government. On 10 December, several parties had called for the government to propose a motion of confidence. Michel attempted to continue with the minority cabinet with support from the

centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...

opposition, who instead announced on 18 December that they would submit a

motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or m ...

against the cabinet. On 18 December, Premier Michel offered his resignation to

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Philippe. On 20 December, the Chamber of Representatives almost unanimously voted a draft budget to enable

provision Provision(s) may refer to: * Provision (accounting), a term for liability in accounting * Provision (contracting), a term for a procurement condition * ''Provision'' (album), an album by Scritti Politti * A term for the distribution, storing an ...

al spending for the first three months of 2019 based on the 2018 budget. The King accepted Michel's resignation on 21 December after consulting party leaders. The outgoing cabinet continues governing as a caretaker government, likely until after the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

, Belgian regional and federal elections of 26 May 2019. On 2 July 2019, Prime Minister Charles Michel was elected to become the next President of the European Council as from 1 December 2019. With no new government formed,

was appointed to take over the role of Prime Minister from 27 October 2019, to allow Charles Michel sufficient time to prepare for his role as President of the European Council.

Composition

Changes in composition

* On June 25, 2019, one month after the 2019 European Parliament elections, Kris Peeters offered his resignation as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Consumer Affairs, Disabled Persons, Economy, Employment, Equal Rights and Fighting Poverty to take up his seat in the

, with CD&V appointing party president Wouter Beke as his replacement two days later, with the exception that the role of Deputy Minister shifted to

Koen Geens Koen Geens (born 22 January 1958) is a Belgian jurist and politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) who served as the Minister of Justice and as Deputy Prime Minister in the governments of Prime Ministers Charles Michel and Soph ...

. * On October 2, 2019, Wouter Beke was in turn replaced by Nathalie Muylle as Beke took up the position as Flemish Minister for Welfare in the

Flemish Government The Flemish Government ( nl, Vlaamse regering ) is the executive branch of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region of Belgium. It consists of a government cabinet, headed by the Minister-President and accountable to the Flemish Parliament, ...

References

{{Belgian governments Belgian governments 2018 establishments in Belgium Cabinets established in 2018